Blurred Lines
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: this is a what if story. what if the turtles grew up having very little knowledge of humans? They have no concept of male or female and think of women as 'odd fellows'. then what if they save a woman and splinter allows her to stay with them as a part of their family. Will there be a spark of awareness? Possible harem. please R&R this one otta be good.
1. Chapter 1

Two thirty am in time square was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Epecially on nights when it rained and there was no one lurking about except the predators that usually stalked prey in the night. It was cool, but the slight chill in the air did not deter them from their mutual goals. After all, observing humans was the one and only source of learning that they had up until late last year.

But that didn't stop them from observing whenever they could.

Tonight was no different. They each hid themselves in the inky darkness in pairs of two, just shy of the lights- and watched the few humans walking about. There were several pairs with umberellas running for the nearest cover.

There were one or two walking alone, and they couldn't help but notice the differences between some as opposed to the others. They knew that males were usually bigger in build and their frames carried more muscle, and were generally more aggessive by nature. But they weren't sure what to think of the smaller, more slender bodied ones.

They simply weren't built for combat, or- well, much of anything really. They simply appeared to be too fragile.

And it confused them as to why the males would stick so close to them and treat them like delicate treasures. Of course most of the people they fought with at night didn't do this. They targeted the smaller and more fragile 'fellows' and generally wound up hurting them before they could save them.

But that was niether here nor there tonight. Tonight they had taken turns picking humans to observe and the last pick of the night was one of the smaller framed, slender bodied humans.

One that stood at about five foot six with soft tan colored skin and mid back length dark curls that framed an delicate, pixie-like face. The human's eyes were tilted at the tips, giving an exotic look. And the color was a lovely almost glowing teal color fringed by dark lashes. The human was wearing a vivid turqouise colored jacket over a black shirt and jeans.

And he was walking alone. Something that while wasn't rare to see- usally meant that they would have one last job to do before they went home. But for now, they were just content to watch the fellow. He had been active up until a five or so minutes ago. Now he simply stood in the rain, his umbrella slipping from numb fingertips and falling somewhere behind him as he stared blankly ahead into the darkness where they were each hidden.

Almost like he saw them. But that was impossible considering their years of Ninjutsu training.

Still, they would be lying if they said that his stillness didn't unerved them a bit. It wasn't until the fellow just up and collapsed that they all felt concerned for his well being enough to edge their way out of their hiding places and quickly make their way to the fellow's side and check on him. After all it wasn't like they could help him if he had just dropped dead of a heart attack or something.

Something that while rarely happened around them- but did still happen from time to time.

Luckily for them the fellow had fallen partially into the darkness so it was easy for them to grasp pieces of the fellow's clothing and drag him into the darkness where they let their third brother check his pulse and a few other things before he glanced up at the eldest of them with a worried look on his face.

He had no idea what had caused the fellow to collapse. And without knowing why, they couldn't help him.

The eldest of them glances at the others, looking for them to object to taking the fellow to their home but none of them seemed to care. Sighing because he thought their master/father wasn't going to be happy about having a guest but in this instance they had no choice. Nodding his head, he watched as the second eldest scooped the fellow up and frowned as he noted that his brother dwarfed him in size.

The fellow was so small compared to them that it was shocking really. It was almost as if his brother was holding a child in his arms. Which made him wonder about several things as they quickly made their way to the nearest sewer and disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

The sewers were flooded from the rain as they made their way home.

Making it difficult for just one of them to carry the fellow at any one time. So to make sure that the fellow didn't hinder them much on their way home, they took turns passing the fellows unconcious body from one to another once they had gained the proper footing to keep themselves from being swept away.

Taking painstaking care not to drop the fellow into the rushing sewer waters where he would be swept away and drown before they could reach him.

The youngest of them had the fellow this time, and commented on how light the fellow felt to him before passing him to the third oldest who said that it was probably from lack of a shell. But then after a moment or so changed his mind, and muttered something about probably a lack of proper diet before they came to a place where he had to hand the fellow off to one of the others again.

It took them thirty minutes longer than usual, but finally they reached the higher tunnels leading home and stepped through the large crack leading to their lair, the second oldest once again carrying the fellow in his arms, and were greeted by the expectant face of their master.

"You are late my sons."

The eldest bowed to their master/father respectfully and was about to explain when he saw his master glance at his brother, holding the smaller body of the human and narrowed his eyes at the fellow then looked at them, his expression oddly blank before he turned and all but growled at them. "Come." Causing them each to cringe at the roughness of the usually soft and gentle tone.

"He sounds mad." The youngest said in a tone barely above a whisper to one of his older brothers.

"We brought a stranger into our home... A _human_ stanger. He has every right to be mad." His older brother said as they followed their master/father down the stairs and into the living area where their master paused long enough to tell the second oldest to wait next by the couch, while he sent another after a towel to dry their guest and a blanket to cover the fellow while he lectured them.

The one stood there with the fellow in his arms, tapping his foot and feeling impatient as his youngest brother came barreling out of the bathroom with a large fluffy towel in his hands and paused by a closet to dig out a thick blanket, before moving over to where his brother stood, and carefully wrapped the towel around the small body of the human before wrapping him in the blanket, and letting his brother lay the fellow down on the couch as their master/father looked at each of them with a peculiar expression on his face before asking, "Now, why have you brought a human into our home?"

"We were observing the humans like we do each night-" The eldest started to say when the youngest cut him off.

"When this guy just stopped moving and stared blankly ahead then collapsed!"

Their master/father sighed and shook his head slowly at his youngest son's words. 'Guy' indeed. "My sons, you did not bring a male into our home... You brought a female." His four sons stared at him, their expressions questioning.

As if they wanted to ask, _What's a female? _Causing him to sigh tiredly_. _It of course wasn't their fault that they couldn't distinguish male from female.

After all their knowledge of humans was so limited that outside of their nightly patrols they seemed like small children, though they were well into their late teens to early twenties. "Well, the female collapsed..." His third son said before asking curiously. "Are there differences between females and males that we don't know of?"

Their master/father's whiskers twitched. _Oh_, he wasn't touching that question. It would cause trouble, he just knew it. Ignoring his curious son's stare, he then asked them why they didn't simply take the human to a hospital.

All at once all four of them started speaking, his two middle children raised up such a fess about taking the human to the hospital, and about questionable care that he was starting to become convinced that they had brought the poor female home with them knowing what she was on a sub concious level. And if that was the case then there was no point in arguing with them about the woman's presence. Sighing again, he glanced at the her.

He supposed that for a human she was physically appealing.

Then again he didn't really know what it was about her that had made his son's break the rules just to bring her home. Was it because of something in their instinct? Or did they simply want to help her with her injury?

Whatever it was he wouldn't know the truth for a while. "Bring the woman to me once she awakens. We have much to speak about." _Like prior medical conditions- And if she has a family and a home or not. _


	3. Chapter 3

_"Mom, what are you doing here?" She asked in a confused tone as she stared at the woman's back. Her mother turned away from the counter top and looked at her, her face just as she remembered it from before her death. Her mass of thick shoulder length curls framing her face. She smiled at her and put her hands on her hips as she said, _

_"Silly girl. I've always been here. Now hand me the dough cutter, I'm making my famous cookies for you and your father." _

_She picked up a plastic dough cutter and handed it to her mom and watched her as she went about making cookies until the image suddenly shifted and her mother was hanging upside down among broken glass, trying to push her through twisted metal. _

_There was blood on her mother's forehead and hands. _

_"Get out! You have to get out! Go get help! Hurry!" Her mother urged her. The tone of her voice terrified as she cleared the twisted metal and glass and got a better look at what had happened. _

_It was a car accident. _

_Her mother's vehicle had been plowed into by a semi and flipped five times before skidding to a stop after slamming into a telephone pole. But that didn't stop another car from slamming into it moments after she had run across the street to get help causing the whole car- her mother and all- to errupt in a fireball. _

_She could recall years after her mother's death, how she would always wake up screaming because she could hear her mother's screams as she burned to death in the wreckage. _

_The image shifted again and this time she could see her father's back as he walked out the front door of their house. Leaving her alone for two weeks before she was found by a neighbor in the empty house. _

_(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************)_

The mutants were going about their usual business, training, cleaning and such when one of them noticed that the 'female' as their master/father had put it was twitching in his sleep. Almost like he were dreaming about something.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he looked over to meet the concerned dark brown eyes of his younger brother a moment before he stepped back to let his brother move in closer to the couch where he knelt down next to the female and reached out hesitantly to stroke his damp hair in a soothing manner. "I think he's dreaming." His younger brother said in a whispered tone.

"Looks more like he's having a nightmare to me." He said, keeping his tone gentle just in case it somehow scared the female while he dreamt. His younger brother shot him a look and he shrugged. As if to say, _What? I'm right aren't I? _As another one of their brothers walked up and peered over the back of the couch and frowned.

"He looks like he has a headache." The youngest of them said before his older brother picked up a couch cushion and threw it at his head causing him to yelp and jump back to avoid it. The cushion hit the floor just shy of his feet as both of his older brothers made shushing sounds. Both of their expressions fierce.

"If you wake him before he recovers Mikey, I'm going to beat you black and blue." Brown eyes said in a growling tone before he fell silent and resumed stroking the female's hair until she settled down again.

"How is our young guest doing?" The calm voice of their master/father sounded from behind them. His tone curious.

Brown eyes dropped his hand away from the female's head and glanced at their master/father. "The female is dreaming about something that disturbs him. Maybe something he saw or experienced before collapsing."

Their master/father sighed. His son's were still referring to the woman as 'he' and 'fellow' even though he had told them that the woman was female. This wasn't an encouraging sign to him. "My son's, I've told you before that our guest is a female. Do you still not know what that means?"

His son's stared at him unblinkingly. Their expressions blank.

_Of course not. _Their master/father thought irritably as he moved forward a few steps and said, "They are weak, and so very fragile that the slightest touch from one of you during a temper tantrum could cause irreparable harm. Even death-" His son's looked at him wide eyed, their minds absorbing the information like spunges even as horror set in.

Was their master/father trying to tell them that it wasn't safe for the fellow to be near them? That for some reason or another they might hurt him? "Being responsible for such a person isn't easy... But at the same time it has it's own rewards."

"Rewards, master?" One of his son's echoed in a questioning tone as he tilted his head.

Their master/father smiled at them and moved closer as he said, "I had the privilege of knowing a human female when all four of you were young. Back before your days of ninja training, when you were little more than mutated hatchlings. She was very kind and compassionate by nature, but our presence in her life cost her dearly-"

"What happened master?" The one standing next to brown eyes asked.

Their master/father took a deep breath to compose himself, then continued to tell them about his friend. "She was killed in a car accident on her way to meet with me. Her young daughter was with her. I have no idea if she managed to at least get her daughter out of the car in time or not. All I found when I went looking for her was flames, and twisted metal."

"You miss your friend."

"Of course I do. And if her daughter had lived you and your brothers would have had a female friend to help you learn more about the humans."

"Master, am I correct to assum that 'female' is another word for 'she'?" Brown eyes asked with a slight tilt of his head. His master/father turned his head to look at him and nodded. Brown eyes smiled then quickly announced, "Then that's what we'll name him."

Their master/father gave brown eyes a peculiar look and slowly shook his head before saying. "You can't name her, Donatello. She isn't a puppy or kitten that you picked up off of the street. She is a person with a mind and feelings, much like you and your brothers. Besides, I'm sure that she already has a name."

"Oh." Donatello said in a slightly disappointed tone that made his master/father chuckle softly. They hadn't even spoken with the woman and already they were naming her. His boys were in for a huge shock once she awakened. Especially since they were bound to get themselves into trouble with her within the first few minutes.


	4. Chapter 4

The four took turns off and on through the day and night watching the human for any signs of pain, discomfort, or awareness to their presence. All of which the human showed none. Almost all of which the four were grateful for. After all, they didn't want the female to suffer, especially after the way their master/father had explained things to them about how _weak_ and_ fragile_ females were.

In fact knowing just how weak and fragile the creature laying on the couch was compared to them- was horrifying to them.

So sometime between the night they had brought the female home and sometime between the morning, long before any of them thought of getting some rest for themselves, they had all sat down with a sheet of paper and some markers and created a list of concerns ranging from mental heath, to the lack of a shell to protect the female's organs.

Finally after listing all of their concerns down on paper, the four had then gone about devising plans to make sure that the female didn't get hurt while staying with them, and gave the paper to their master/father to look over for anything that they may have missed.

He gave them a small lecture about keeping someone who may have a family to worry over them and after stressing several times that they could only keep her if she allowed them too- handed the papers back to them and waved them off.

Deciding to sit back and enjoy the show that was to come.

His eldest son had just been decided on to watch the female for a bit while his brothers rested, and sent them all to bed when the woman started to stir a bit. Seeing this the middle son of the family leaped over the railing of the stairs and all but ran across the living room just to get to the couch as the eldest stepped back so that his brother could work.

He knew more about medicines and stuff anyways. So if the human was in pain when she awoke, then he would be the one better able to help her. She made a small sound in the back of her throat as her eyes fluttered open for a moment and the eldest couldn't help but notice the strange coloring of her eyes. Not blue, not green. Nor brown or hazle.

Lilac.

Her eyes were the softest shade of lilac purple. They were _beautiful_.

"Who? Where?" She rasped in a tone that both curious and held a little bit of fear. Though he couldn't tell if the fear had to do with their appearance or perhaps something else. She looked at them with a small frown marring her pretty face as if she were trying to figure out their origins on her own and failing. There were just so many possibilities after all.

"Shhh. My name is Donatello and the guy behind me is my older brother Leonardo. You collapsed in the park while we were observing and since there is a lot of crime in that area we couldn't just leave you, so we brought you home with us. You've been out for almost a day in a half. How do you feel?"

"Groggy and a little weirded out- but I'll live thanks." She said as she lifted a hand to rub at one of her temples when a green hand caught hers and pulled her hand away.

"Don't do that-" The one who called himself Donatello said almost sharply before gentling his voice upon seeing her flinch, "If your head hurts you should just say something. We have medicine."

She frowned again and said in a tired tone. "Oh. Okay. My head hurts."

"How bad?" Donatello asked.

"I have a migraine."

Donatello made a soft humming sound and thought for a moment then started firing questions at her. "Did you hurt your head? Do you have prior medical conditions? Are you uncomfortable? How bad does your migraine hurt?"

She hesitated for a second, trying to remember his questions even as he asked them so that she could answer him. "Uh...no. Yes. Seizures. A little bit. The lights in here are hurting my eyes. Pretty bad. I feel like my head has been split open."

Donatello looked to his older brother and motioned for him to dim the lights a bit then turned back to the woman and asked, "Do you recall anything from before you collapsed? Where you were going? Your name?"

"My name is Alice Caldwell. I don't recall anything else though, sorry." Alice said as Leonardo rejoined them. Donatello had a peculiar expression on his face that looked almost sympathetic as he reached out and brushed her dark hair back from her face and then looked up at his brother.

"That's okay. We just wanted to be sure that we wouldn't cause you undue distress."

"Distress?"

"Yeah..." Donatello said before saying to Leonardo in a whispered tone. "We have Advil in the bathroom, could you bring the bottle here? We should treat her migraine before it becomes too bad." Leonardo nodded his head and quickly disappeared again as Alice asked,

"Are you really turtles or people wearing costumes?"

Donatello mulled over the question for a moment before replying. "Which one would frighten you less?"

"Both choices don't frighten me. I just asked because I need to be sure my mind isn't playing tricks on me." Alice said in an almost child like tone as Leonardo re appeared with the Advil and handed the bottle to Donatello and watched as his brother popped the lid off and shook out three brown tablets and handed them to Alice and watched as she took the pills then settled back on the couch with her eyes closed for a moment.

Donatello picked up one of her hands and slipped his palm along her own and watched for any signs of alarm as she opened her eyes to look at him. "You're skin is peculiar feeling." She said as he rubbed his hand along her palm several times, his eyes never leaving her own as he replied.

"And your's is very soft."

"You're really a turtle-man huh?"

He smiled faintly, not completely sure that she could see him do so in the dim light and nodded even as he corrected her. "We're mutants actually."

"What kind of turtle are you?"

"A red earred slider. My brothers are too." Donatello said as he motioned with his head to Leonardo as Alice seemed to absorb the information. Brothers. Plural, meaning more than one.

She pushed herself up a little bit until her body was resting on it's elbows and peeked over the back of the couch in an effort to see anyone that may be lurking unseen and upon seeing no one settled back down on the couch and looked at Donatello and Leonardo questioningly before Leo said, "We have two more brothers. They're in bed now but you'll meet them tomorrow along with our father."

"Is your dad a turtle too?"

They both chuckled at the innocent question before finally one of them answered, "Uh, no. He's a rat. Don't worry though, he's nice."

"Oh... Okay."

"You're tired-" Leo said as he put his hand on Donatello's shoulder and gave it a subtle squeeze.

"Yeah. It's the migraine. Damn things make me sleep a lot."

"Then we'll leave you alone to rest. But before we do, do you need anything? Pillows? A warmer blanket-"

"A bed?"

"No thanks. I'm good here."

The two nodded to her and said goodnight to Alice quietly so as not to cause any discomfort due to her migraine and silently left her alone. Both almost too excited to sleep due to the fact that they wanted so badly to introduce the rest of their family to her.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day-

Alice lay curled up on her side on the couch, cocooned in the blanket that one of the...mutant turtles? (Had she really had such an experience or was the universe laughing at her?) had given to her to use to keep warm. When she could have sworn that she felt a pair of eyes boring into her skull and slowly opened here eyes to see who was looking at her and saw Donatello's smileing face.

"Hey how are you feeling?" He asked in a whispered tone. Alice blinked at him and started to answer when he set something down on the table just off to the side of the arm of the couch where her head was and started rambling a bit, "So- I did research on your disorder and I found out that there are several ways to control it. Since removing part of your brain is out, I thought maybe you'd appreciate something less dangerous-" Alice blinked again, hardly able to keep up with what he was saying when he asked, "Are you on medication right now for your siezures?"

"Uh...no. I was- but I had to stop getting it because I didn't have the money."

Don made a sad expression and said, "Aww. I'm sorry-" He reached out and placed a hand on one of her arms and rubbed it through the blanket and then resumed his rambling.

"I stayed up all night, had thirteen cups of coffee, and found some medicine that you could use! I even managed to make some last night. It's got the same chemicals as the actual meds, I just used my chemistry set to make them. All you have to do is mix the powder with some tea or something and let your body get accustomed to it. There should be only a few side effects, nothing too bothersome or worrying. It'll make you drowzy from time to time, you may have a lack of proper appetite. But I can help you with that if it gets in the way-"

It was right about then that the other turtle from the night before walked by and paused upon seeing a wound up Don rambling away at Alice while the poor girl looked like she wanted nothing more than to bolt. Or possiblely hide simply to escape his brother's hyper speed one sided conversation.

Leo sighed and made his way quietly over to where Don, knowing that he needed to save Alice before his brainy brother talked her ears right off, and grabbed Don by his mask tails and pulled him off balance.

Don toppled over with a soft yelp and looked up at his older brother whom was greeting Alice in his usual polite manner.

"Hello Alice-chan." Leonardo said smoothly, his expression serene. "Did you sleep well?"

Alice nodded her head and looked down at Don who had become strangely quiet until both she and Leo heard a soft snore escape the turtle on the floor. Blinking again and trying to figure out what had just happened, Leo gave a soft laugh and shook his head. "Geez, I wish I could fall asleep that easy."

"You and me both." Alice muttered as she unwrapped the blanket from herself and was about to drap it over the purple banded turtle when Leo laid his hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"There's no need for that." He said as he knelt down and carefully gathered up his younger brother in his arms and then stood back up. "I'll put him in his room and let him sleep a bit. The bathroom is past the kitchen. We have fully functioning plumming, and if you want to take advantage of it. There are even clean women's clothes in the towel closet."

"Oh. Thank you." Alice said as a flush krept up to her pale cheeks.

"Don't waste time thanking me just yet, just go and freshen up while everyone else is still asleep." Leo said soberly as he started to walk away.


	6. Chapter 6

Sad new kittens- Earlier today someone in my family was shot execution style in the back of the head and killed, and this person is married to one of my younger cousins whom has three small children and a possible fourth on the way. The police have a suspect- but nothing more.

Now for many of you who live all over the country who have known people killed in such a way. Or for those of you who have witnessed such terrible tragidies- my heart goes out to you.

Ben was a nice guy, hard working, as friendly as a puppy... He was always happy to see someone. He will be badly missed by his wife, children and the rest of the family.

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Alice found the turtles bathroom tucked in a dark corner just beyond the kitchen where Leonardo said it would be. However what he didn't tell her was, A) it was next to a broom closet with all kinds of junk in it.

But that was okay because she figured it out quickly enough after opening the wrong door and nearly having her head crushed by a bowling ball.

But once she managed to pick up the mess and open the right door, she suddenly felt like she was in another world or something. Her heart thudded against her ribs, her palms were starting to sweat, her fingers nervously twitched as she lifted her arm and hesitantly flicked on the lights and blinked as the lights flickered on.

The bathroom itself was set up like a locker room.

The brick and tile of the walls and floor were a cream and blue colors, against the right side of the wall were four stalls, each complete with a showerhead, four walls, a shelf just before the first stall with towels, and scented soaps for sensitive skin. There were also little bottles of shampoo and conditioner sitting on the shelf, all unopened.

Looking though everything, Alice grabbed a bar of yucca scented soap and the shampoo and conditioner to match, then after grabbing a towel- she moved to the other side of the room where the sink was...right next to the closet that Leo had mentioned.

Setting her towel and stuff on the counter, she nervously approached the door to the closet and tentatively reached out (who could blame her after her earlier experience right?) and gripped the door knob and slowly pulled it open. And was more than a little relieved when nothing fell down on her. Sighing because she was being silly, she reached out and started to pull out some of the women's clothes that Leo had mentioned.

Everything was clean from what she could smell, and after a moment or so she managed to find a lavender sweater, a pair of jeans that she was sure would fit her and some undergarments too.

Setting them all aside on the counter with the rest of her stuff she then picked up her towel, soap and stuff and moved to the first shower stall and opened the door and set her soap and stuff on a shelf built into one of the walls, then draped the towel over the top. And then slipped her shoes off before letting her fingers go to the fly of her pants and quickly undo them and slip them down her long slender legs and then set them aside before gripping the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her head and setting it on top of her pants.

Once she finished undressing and moved to the showerhead she took several moments to turn on the water and play with it to figure out how to get the water warm. And then stood under the spray for several seconds, simply enjoying the water before she grabbed the soap and started to rub it into her skin.

She was so busy cleaning herself that she never noticed the door to the bathroom open and then click closed again. Nor did she notice the yawning turtle in the red mask start by the shower stall then suddenly stop and look her way.

Raph stood there silently, watching as the human cleaned itself, his expression one of fascination. He'd never seen a human in this state before and the smooth expanse of creamy white skin made his palms itch to touch the human and see if it was as soft as it looked.

Completely disregarding the fact that the human was a guest and he and his brothers were to respect certain bounderies, Raph silently slipped into the stall and walked up to the human whom had it's eyes closed and it's head tilted back under the spray of water, rinsing the last of the conditioner out of it's long hair. And reached out and braced one hand on the wall next to a slender shoulder and with his free one reached out and lightly touched the human's upper arm.

It wasn't built anything like him, and from the sudden gasp and jerking action it did- it was obviously startled by his presence.

"Whoa, calm down-" He said as he caught a whiff of the yucca scent clinging to the human's skin and leaned in a little bit and sniffed at it through the water. _Oh wow- _Aside from pizza, he'd never smelled anything that smelled so good. "The yucca smell suits you." He said as the human looked towards the door with a panicked expression on it's face as it crossed it's arms over it's chest.

Trying to hide itself.

Obviously finding his attentions unflattering or disturbing in some way. Though he didn't understand _why_. It wasn't like he was going to hurt it. He was just curious about it. It looked nothing like him or his brothers. It's chest had swollen mounds on it that were perfectly round, the stomach was so pale that it reminded him of the stomach of a salamander that his younger brother Mikey had brought home once.

Raph had spent hours upon hours running his fingers along the tiny lizard's stomach. There was just something he had found soothing about it. Looking at the human's stomach again he wondered if it would let him touch it, however something else caught his attention.

It was just below the abdomen. It was small triangle of dark hair. And nothing else!

Frowning he wondered if the human was like him and his brothers and it's sex organs were up inside of it. He might have asked if it hadn't have finally found it's voice and screamed, nearly scaring him out of his shell as it threw the yucca soap at him and hit him in the shoulder.

He yelped and staggered back and crashed into one of the walls as the human bolted past him and ran over to the counter where it snagged a towel just as Leo came bursting through the door with his katana drawn, his expression murderous.

_Aw shell. _Raph thought as Leo's voice sounded like thunder in the room. "What happened?"


	7. Chapter 7

Sad new kittens- Earlier today someone in my family was shot execution style in the back of the head and killed, and this person is married to one of my younger cousins whom has three small children and a possible fourth on the way. The police have a suspect- but nothing more.

Now for many of you who live all over the country who have known people killed in such a way. Or for those of you who have witnessed such terrible tragidies- my heart goes out to you.

Ben was a nice guy, hard working, as friendly as a puppy... He was always happy to see someone. He will be badly missed by his wife, children and the rest of the family.

(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leo came bursting through the door with his katana drawn, his expression murderous. _Aw shell. _Raph thought as Leo's voice sounded like thunder in the room. _"What happened?" _

Alice looked at him and pointed and sort of jumped in place as she squeaked almost hysterically, "Someone got in the shower with me! He backed me against the wall and touched me!" Leo narrowed his eyes a fraction before his voice boomed,

**_"Raphael you get your ass out here now and explain yourself!"_ **As he sheathed his katana's and moved over to Alice and took the towel from her hands and wrapped it around her, ignoring the curiosity he felt about her body. It just looked so strange.

Not in a bad way mind you, but strange nevertheless.

Still he would worry about that later. Right now he had a twin brother to smack down for scaring Alice. "Raphael!" He said in a growling tone when no one came out of the shower stall. Making an irritated sound, he then looked down at Alice who looked up at him with her wide beautiful eyes and he felt a peculiar sensation- almost like a foreign warmth, spreading through his gut.

_What is this strange feeling?_ He wondered as he placed a hand against his plasteron just over the spot where he felt the foreign warmth and rubbed it.

"Stay here, Alice." He said in a guttural tone as he caught movement from behind him and saw Donatello and his other brother Mikey standing in the doorway, peering into the bathroom at him and Alice with curious expressions. He ignored them and moved away from Alice to go drag Raph out of the shower stall by his mask tails as Don moved into the room to stand next to her.

The poor girl was shaking, he noted. Though wheather it was from the cold in the room or something else he didn't know.

"Alice what happened?" He asked as he lightly touched her shoulder and saw her flinch away from him slightly. Hurt he started to drop his hand when she grabbed it and muttered,

"Sorry Don. I didn't mean to do that."

Shuttering his expression, he gave her a tight lipped smile and nodded as yelling errupted from somewhere near the shower stall with the still running water. He turned his head and could just barely see Leo's shell as he punched something. _Oh, so that's why Alice screamed. _Raph had scared her.

Or at the very least rattled her badly.

So he couldn't hold it against her for flinching away from his hand like she had. Especially after meeting Raph while in such a vulnerable state. Hell, any human would freak if they met Raph while showering. From what little he did know about humans, they liked their privacy when going about certain tasks.

Wrapping his arm around Alice's slender shoulders, he grabbed the small pile of clothing that she had found for herself and deftly maneuvered her towards the door. Pushing her past his curious younger brother as he did so. He was getting tired of seeing her flinch from the sound of flesh striking flesh as Raph's yelps filled the bathroom along with Leo's muttered oaths.

Besides, she needed someplace private where she could dry off and get dressed before she took a chill and became sick. The lab would work. It was close by and the door closed and was a tad difficult to open. So it was the ideal room to offer her some privacy.

Not to mention that he had a space heater in there that had been going for a while now, so the room temp should be nice and warm even by human standards. So with any luck the space heater in his lab coupled with his advice about drying off well would keep her from getting ill.

He herded her over to the door of his lab and then handed her the clothes and quickly pushed her inside and said in a rush, "Here, use the lab to finish drying off and getting dressed. The door doesn't need to be locked, it has a trick to it that keeps it shut. I'll guard, you get dressed."


	8. Chapter 8

Alice stood there for a moment after the door closed, looking around at the drab grey metal walls. Her body still shaking slightly from her experience with Don and Leo's brother. What had Leo called him again, Raphael?

"Named for one of the archangels." She muttered to herself as her mind replayed the shower incident.

She could see why he had been named after one of the archangels...he'd scared the living hell out of her with his amber eyes and the intense way he stared. His touch had been so very gentle though. Much like the rumbling purr of his voice had been. It had almost seemed as if he hadn't been trying to scare her, just get to know her a little.

Almost like a child would.

Sighing she shook her head and made her way over to the computer desk a few feet away and set the clothes she was to change into on it and blinked at the scattered pieces of computer chips, disks, and other things sitting on the desk and thought, _Good lord where did this stuff come from?_ But more importantly, who was fixing it into something and why?

Taking the towel off, she used it to quickly rub her hair dry then went from there. Starting at an arm then switching, rubbing down the skin of her torso before starting on her legs. Once she was done she dropped the towel to the floor and stepped onto it- an old habit she kept from childhood, and picked up the first article of clothing.

A pair of purple silk panties, and pulled them on. Once that was done she grabbed the sweater and pulled it on next, leaving the pants for last. Finally after putting the pants on she bent down to retrieve the towel when she heard a loud bang of a hand against the door before Don called out, "Are you done?"

Snatching the towel up off of the floor she made her way over to the door and banged on it with her own hand and winched slightly at how much it hurt to do that. Taking it as a sign that she was finished, a second later the door opened and she suddenly found herself face to face with not just Don but Leo and the rest of their siblings.

The turtle in red was rubbing his shoulder as if it pained him while he stared her down, his amber eyes glittering. "Alice I believe you met our second oldest brother Raphael-" Don said as he reached out and gently took her arm and pulled her from the lab. She nodded her head in Raphael's direction but didn't really say anything as Don continued, "And Raphael has something he wishes to say to you. Don't you?" There was a meanness to Don's tone that Alice had never heard before as she quickly glanced at him.

Next to him stood Leo, both of them looked at their brother with pissed off expressions on their faces.

"Uh, yeah... Sorry about before. I didn't mean to freak ya out or nuthin'." Raphael said as he looked at his brothers quickly then glanced back at her.

"That's okay. No harm done." She said almost shyly as Raphael tilted his head a little bit and studied her. His eyes going over her body from head to toe before he blurted out.

"Ya ain't got no socks or shoes on."

Alice looked down at the precise moment the others did and wiggled her toes. "Huh, I guess I must have forgotten my shoes in the bathroom-"

"I'll go get em for ya den." Raphael said and before she could say anything- he disappeared into thin air.

"W-What the? How did? Huh?" Alice said as she looked at Leo and Don before Leo said,

"Nevermind that. You still haven't been introduced to Mikey yet."

"Mikey?" She said lamely as Leo nodded and motioned for his youngest brother to come forward. Mikey, as it seemed was a quiet and almost shy guy of nineteen. His mask was a bright and vivid orange while his skin was a pale sea foam green that reminded her of her first foster home's walls. It wasn't ugly on the young turtle, in fact it was very striking on him.

But it had been a horrible color on the foster home's walls.

"H-Hello." Mikey said shyly.

Alice smiled at him, "Hello Mikey. How are you today?" She asked politely. Icey blue eyes flickered and stared at her for a moment as he fidgeted with one of the pads he wore on his elbows. He gave her a small awkward smile and blushed so hard that she could actually see the reddish tint to his skin as he looked away from her and said in a low tone,

"I'm good. You?"

"Well I've had a little bit of a rough morning, but I'm not going to hold that against anyone. Okay." Mikey gave her another small smile and looked to his two brothers as Raphael finally returned with her shoes and a pair of socks that she had never seen before and handed them to her as Mikey said,

"Like him."

Alice cocked her head to the side and was about to ask why Mikey had called her 'him' when Don sighed and gave her an apologetic look and quickly said, "I'll take care of this Alice." Then ushered a bewildered Mikey and Raphael into his lab and quietly closed the metal door behind him. Leaving her with just Leo to keep her company.

The two of them stood there for a moment in silence before Leo asked in a hesitant tone, "Are you hungry? I could fix you something for breakfast."

"That would be nice, thank you." Alice said as he smiled happily and offered her his arm in a gentlemanly gesture that she found oddly adorable as she took it after shifting her hold on the socks and shoes still in her hand and let him lead her away.


	9. Chapter 9

Don sighed and sat back in his swivel chair for a moment before making an irritated sound and saying once again, "Okay, let's go over this again. Alice is a 'she'. Not a he, or a him like us. She's a female. We are male. Do you understand?"

By the blank looks he got from Raph and Mikey, they didn't understand at all.

Jumping up Don decided to try another approach and pointed to himself and said very clearly, "Male-" Raph and Mikey lifted their hands and pointed to themselves as if needing to confirm that they were also male. Don nodded and then pointed to them and said, "Male," Then put his hands out in front of him and used them to draw an nice hourglass figure in the air and said, "Female. _Alice._ Get it?"

Both of his brothers tilted their heads a bit to the left as Mikey frowned and said, "What's to get? Those are squiggle lines."

Before Raph said, "Yeah. Besides...Alice's body is more like-" And he started to draw a smaller figure in the air with his fingers when he saw Don get this strange look on his face before he went for his bo.

Raph stepped back a few feet and stared at his brainy brother solemly, he'd never seen him act like this before. But then Leo was acting strangely as well. And though he knew it was because of Alice, he wasn't sure if it was a bad thing or not. He had even noticed earlier that _he_ was acting oddly. Offering to go fetch a pair of shoes without being asked.

He never fetched anything without being asked unless it was for their master/father.

"Tell me something Raph, you got a pretty good look at Alices body when you were in the shower with her. Did you see anything abnormal? Any weaknesses?" Don asked as he set his bo aside for a moment. He'd clobber his brother for sneeking a peek later. Right now he needed to know certain things.

Raph nodded as he crossed his arms and thought, _Too many. _"No shell or armor of any kind. Her skin is very soft. Almost as soft as that the inside of dat cake we had for Mikey's last birthday. Slender limbs, easy to break. Small hands and feet. Small skull, it would be far too easy for our enimies to crush..."

Don put a hand over his eyes and tried not to imagine any of those things as he said, "Okay, okay, stop! I get it! Anything else?"

"Pale... Every inch of skin on er is so pale. It's like she's never seen the light of day till now." Raph said thoughtfully as his two brother's stared at him.

"Maybe she's a vampire."

Don having had enough of this conversation, picked up his bo and gave the two a quick hit to the top of the head then opened the door to his lab and kicked them out without another word. A vampire indeed.

Alice was no blood sucker that he'd ever seen before. She was sort of timid natured. And nice...almost sweet like Mikey. She was also very quiet and polite. Sinking back into his seat after propping his bo up against his computer desk, he recalled the incident earlier that morning when he had pretended to pass out. She had been about to use her blanket to cover him so that he wouldn't get too cold.

Of course she probably didn't know that he was cold blooded and thus the floor didn't bother him much, but it had still been a nice attempt at a gesture. Her expression when he had fake snored had been just _adorable_.

(**********************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Alice sat at a nice round table with a steaming mug of peach tea in front of her while Leo rooted around the cabinets, freezer then the fridge before swearing under his breath when all he found was pizza crusts. "Damn."

"Is something wrong?" Alice asked after a moment or so as he closed the fridge and looked at her with a sheepish expression on his face.

"W-We're out of food."

"Oh."

"But don't worry or anything-" He said quickly before continuing, "I'll just go to the surface and get some stuff. What would you like?"

Alice cocked her head slightly and started to get up as she said, "Wouldn't it just be easier if I went with you and grabbed what I wanted?" Leo tensed and shook his head no.

"Too dangerous, just tell me what you want and I'll go get it and be back within thirty minutes." Leo said a little more forcefully this time, missing the way Alice's eyes narrowed at him before she asked curiously.

"Am I a prisoner Leo?"

"W-What?" He stammered out looking a little dumbfounded. "No, you're not a prisoner."

"Then why won't you let me go with you?" Alice asked as she slowly stood up. Leo looked around the kitchen for a moment, his expression panicked when he heard Raph walk into the kitchen and pause just behind him.

"Leo? What's wrong?" The red banded turtle asked.

"Nothing. Stay with Alice and try to stay out of trouble!" Leo said quickly as he brushed by him, missing the way Alice climbed over the table in an attempt to stop him as he made his way up to the second floor of the lair, and grabbed one of the four trench coats and brown hats hanging on a peg, and slipped them on as Raph held Alice back.

Leo looked back at her for a moment while calling himself ten kinds of stupid for running from her as she called out to him. "Leo! Leo answer me!" While struggling in Raph's grip. Her expression frightened like it had been earlier.


	10. Chapter 10

Raphael felt uncomfortable with his current predicament because of the amount of distress that he could feel coming off of Alice in waves as she struggled to free herself from his iron like grip. Hoping that she would tire herself out, he shifted his hold on her so that he could bring her closer to his body and wrap his arms around her so that he could try comforting her a little while still holding her in place.

After all Leo had said to keep her with him.

But sadly he lacked the knowledge to deal with a nearly hysterical human female. Looking around for something- anything- to help him handle this situation, he hardley noticed that she was hyperventilating until her legs went out from under her.

Alarmed, he shouted for help without realizing it while quickly picking Alice up and holding her in his arms as Mikey appeared, took one quick look and swore like a teenager drinking down at the docks at midnight before yanking out a seat at the table and pushing Raph down into it before disappearing to either go get Don or their master/father.

Leaving Raph to try and snap Alice out of whatever spell was upsetting her before she lost conciousness. Settling her in his lap, he carefully cradled her slender shoulders with one arm and used his free hand to pat her face while growling. "Hey! Hey! Wake up. Come on! **_Snap out of_ it!**"

_Oh Fearless was going to pay for leaving him to clean up his mess._ He thought darkly as Mikey returned with a paper bag and a stuffed toy, Don right on his heels.

"What happened?" Don demanded as Mikey moved in close and placed the toy- A bunny rabbit with button eyes- in Alices arms before placing the paper bag over her nose and mouth and holding it there by slipping one hand around to palm the back of her head.

"I dunno. But I do know that it's Leo's fault."

Mikey glanced up at his older brother, noting that both he and Don had this weird look. It wasn't a look that he was totally familiar with since he'd never not been on the recieving end, but it looked vaguely like the _I'm-going-to-rip-you-apart_ look. And if they had that look because of Leo then the lair was going to become a loud and scary place for their little human.

Reaching out quickly he grabbed Alice and pulled her from Raph's grasp and put her over one of his shoulders before either of his brothers could react and used a smoke bomb to quickly escape the kitchen and run upstairs to his room where he slipped in and then closed the door behind him.

Once he was inside his room he made his way over to his bed and gently laid Alice on it, noting that sometime between him taking her from Raph and escaping with her- that she had fainted. But at least her breathing was back to normal.

Sighing he tugged at the corner of his bed sheets and fixed it so that they covered her before reaching for a small book he had found several months back in the junk yard. The one that he had started reading last night before bed and ran his fingers over the worn and torn binding as he said the name of the book with a thoughtful look on his face. "Alice in Wonderland... I guess you must feel a lot like the character in this book right now since you both share the same name. Huh Alice?"

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Leonardo stood in the back of the small grocery store staring at the fruit display and trying to think of what might suite Alice's tastes. The small basket dangling from one arm was already partially filled with meat- something that he and his brothers didn't usually eat unless it was on a pizza- bread, vegetables, sour cream and some ranch dip powder, some soda's and tea. Now all he had to do was figure out what sort of fruit to get and he could pay for this stuff and go home.

But raspberries, while nice, were sour most of the time. Much like blackberries and blueberries. Strawberries left an unpleasant acidic taste in the mouth even when sweetened with sugar... So that left- grapes and peaches.

Picking up a plastic bag of red grapes, he placed them in his basket then looked around and upon noticing that no one was around picked up an peach while slipping his other hand into the inside of his jacket to retrieve a small knife. There was only two ways he knew for sure on how to go about figuring the whole fruit mystery out.

Well, okay three, but Alice wasn't present at the moment so that only theft the two.

Taste and smell.

Flicking the small knife open he cut a barely noticable piece of the peach in his hand and placed it in his mouth and made a humming sound. Wow that actually tasted pretty good. Flicking the knife closed again, he grabbed one of the despensible plastic bags and put seven or eight peaches in it figuring that if Alice didn't like them then he'd eat them.

Once this was done, Leo slowly made his way through the store, trying to think of what else Alice might need when he saw the feminine items in one isle and stopped to look.

It was mind boggling how many products females used. Truely it was.

So much so that Leo found himself just standing there gaping at the stuff in front of him in disbelief until another 'female' came along and grabbed a few things and put them in her cart. Finding himself curious he picked up the first thing he'd seen the female pick up and turned it over in his hand.

It was a cream like substance that females used for...yeast infections... Frowning he turned the small box over in his hands again and started to read the instructions and blanched and nearly dropped it when he saw that the instructions indicated that it went inside of the female's body. _Holy- Why would- Gya! Well that's disgusting. _Leo thought as he started to put the stuff back on the shelf but then stopped himself.

What if Alice needed this while she stayed with them?Wouldn't it be better to have it on hand?

Sighing he dropped the box into his basket then grabbed a few more similar to the ones that the other female had gotten and paused when he came across a box labeled, Pregnancy Test, and cocked his head a moment before a lightbulb went off in his head. _Oh! _

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Mikey sat by his bedside softly reading from his book as Alice slept when he heard a low rap at his bedroom door. A barely inaudible sound that a normal person would have missed. Turning his head slightly, he saw the small outline of his master/father's body standing in the doorway, peering in. "Michelangelo?"

"Hai, sensei."

"Is our young guest better now?"

Mikey was silent for a moment as his gaze went to Alice and he sighed and rubbed at the skin over his right eye before answering. "I dunno sensei. She was pretty upset earlier."

"Yes. I heard-" Mikey's master/father said as he quietly pushed the door open a bit more so that he could come inside and see Alice for himself. "Donatello and Raphael are both very upset with your brother. Do you have any idea why?"

"No. Just that Alice was hysterical."

"I see... It isn't like your brother to leave a person in such a state."

"Yeah I know."

"When she wakes bring her to me so that I may speak with her."

"I will."


	11. Chapter 11

Splinter left Mikey's room with his heart in his mouth.

The woman that his son's had brought home to stay with them...she looked like- He shook his head as if to clear it- _No!_ It wasn't possible. Emily was dead. He had seen the flames of her car consume her. And as for her child, well he had never met the little one. So he didn't know if she would have favored her mother in appearance or if she would have favored her father if she had lived.

But... His ears flattened back against his head as he thought, _But that woman looks just like my dead human friend. _Could they somehow be related through blood? Could the woman be Emily's niece? A younger cousin? A child from a previous marriage?

He shook his head again. Nah.

Emily had been head over heels for her husband. Had loved him and their young daughter with all of her heart. Nothing could have seperated them _except_ death. And so death had. Still...

He was curious to meet the young lady. And as someone who believed strongly in reincarnation, he wanted to believe that Emily had been given a new life. Hopefully a happy one, here, in the sewers with him and his son's. Splinter shook his head again, a faint mocking smile curving his lips.

He doubted things would go that way, but it was a nice dream to dream. Wasn't it?

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

After paying for the groceries, Leo quickly made his way back to the nearest manhole and began his trek home with two bags full of food and other stuff in his arms. He had bought several items that were in the feminine hygine isle. The yeast infection medicine, some deoderant that smelled nice- at least to him anyways- And then there had been the pads... He didn't understand their function in the least.

But if nothing else he could give them to Donatello and let him figure out what they were used for. And last but not least, he had bought five pregnancy tests for Don to look at and confirm his suspicions that Alice was a life giver.

Which made her invaluable to their family since they were the first and last of their kind.

If they could get her to agree to stay with them, then it may be possible that they could get close enough to Alice to mate. Their species would continue! It was an exciting thought that held many possibilities that he had felt they would never know. But at the same time part of him felt guilty for the selfish thought in the first place.

Like his master/father had said, she had her own mind. Her own feelings.

He didn't relish the thought of manipulating her and using her for his family's own selfishness. It would be cruel to do so and only make her hate them. Pausing outside the lair, he juggled the two bags for a moment as he punched in the key code and swore to himself that if Alice refused to stay with them, he and his brothers would respect her wishes.

Even though it may kill them to do so.

The large door swung open and he hurried inside and punched in the code to close the door and reactivate the security as Donatello and Raphael stepped out of Don's lab. Both looking like they had gone a round or two with the Shredder and lost horribly. Their expressions like quiet thunder and Leo felt a chill go down his spine.

_Erk! _He thought as he moved cautiously down the stairs while looking around for any traces of Alice. The lair was strangely quiet and it was beginning to worry him as his two brothers met him at the bottom of the stairs with their arms crossed over both of their chests. Their eyes glittering with malice.

"Where's Alice?" Leo asked as he looked around again.

"Unconcious in Mikey's room-" Don said after a heartbeat or so.

Leo's eyes widened a bit in shock and alarm as he dropped the bags in his arms and reached out and before his brothers could react, had them both in a headlock as he snarled, _"What happened?" _

Both Raph and Don struggled for a moment, but stopped when Leo gave them a particularly vicious squeeze. Cutting off their air for just a moment before Don quickly filled him in. "She was hysterical, Leo! She cried and fought and hyperventilated until she fainted so Mikey took her and has been watching her since!"

Leo let them both go and turned and quickly bounded back up the stairs and headed straight for Mikey's room. Upon reaching said room, he opened the door and peeked in to find Mikey sitting in a chair that was much too small for his large frame, with a book in his hands. Dim light from the lamp on his bedside table illuminating his figure as well as the small figure laying on the bed under the covers.

His voice was soft as he read, his gaze accasionally sliding to Alice's prone figure.

It was a strange thing for him to see. Almost like Mikey had taken up the role of a parent for an lost child. His little brother seemed so at peace that Leo didn't dare bother him further. Silently closing the door, he stepped back to find Don and Raph had followed him. Apparently to see what he would do.

They still looked upset but he managed to defuse their anger with just a few words. "We need to talk..."

The two frowned and exchanged a look. Hardley anything good happened when Leo said those words. Often times they felt like the characters of Futurama when he said them. Though they didn't groan.

They swore. And rightly so.

Those words usually ended with them banged up and bruised up. So natrually they weren't looking forward to whatever Leo wanted to say to them even as he brushed past them and grabbed the two bags of food up off of the floor and turned back, waiting for them to follow him as he walked across the living room and into the kitchen so that he could put the perishables up while he spoke to them.

The two exchanged another glance and made irritated sounds in the back of their throats, knowing that they could put Leo's talk off for only so long before he would corner them and force them to listen to what he had to say. So with a resigned sighs, the two made their way into the kitchen and was about to sit down at the table when they noticed that several boxes were spread out across the top.

Frowning now, the two moved to pick up a box each as Leo looked at them from over one of his shoulders while he set aside a few things to feed Alice and put some other stuff up in the cabinets and fridge.

Don was the first one to catch the meaning of the words on the little box he turned over in his hands, his head turned so quickly on his neck that Leo cringed a little and wondered how he did that without getting whiplash as he caught the golden spark in his brainy brother's dark eyes as he hissed softly,_ "Life giver." _

Raph's amber eyes glided from his twin to his younger brother, the gist of Don's softly hissed words were not lost to him as he turned the small box in his hand over and over again so that he could read the words printed on it. Was that what all the excitment was about? Leo had managed to find a life giver? Here in the sewers? _I wonder where. _Raph thought curiously as his eyes skimmed the words on the box as he frowned.

**_He. Did. Not. Understand. A. Single. Word. On. This. Damned. Box!_ **He should give it to Don and have him explain everything to him.

"Uh...Don-"

"What?"

"Could you explain to me what's going on or at the very least what's on this box."

"You have eyes?" Don said.

"Yeah."

"You can read?"

"Yeah..."

"And I'm presuming that you have a brain."

"Watch it brainiac or I'll knock you across the room." Raph growled in irritation. He didn't like being talked too like this. It made him feel as if he were stupider than his other brothers. And that wasn't true. Splinter had taken special care to ensure that he and his brothers could all read and write and speak in at least five different languages, and understand three more.

They each knew how to write poetry and play the japanese harp. Each of them could cook... And then there was their ninja skills on top of everything else. Each of them was well educated and exceptional. So having Don speak to him in such a careless manner, hurt his pride a bit.

Don sighed and snatched the box from his hands and did a quick run down of what it said, even going the extra mile and telling him how the little stick inside the box detected certain female hormones. Once he was done, he tossed the box back to Raph and waited for him to say something as Leo washed two peaches and pulled a knife from one of the drawers next to the sink and started to cut them up and put them in a bowl.

Raph blinked once, his mind spinning from all the information he'd been given before he finally asked, "Where is the life giver?"

"Upstairs. With Mikey."

"Wha-" Raph said, not entirely understanding as Leo washed and added some grapes to the bowel then once he was done grabbed some plastic wrap and wraped the bowel so that the fruit would still be fresh once Alice was settled enough to eat.

"He's refering to Alice, Raph."

"Alice-" Raph said, his amber eyes lightening to molten yellow with bronze flecks in them. "Ya mean the human we brought home?" Both of his brothers nodded their heads and Raph swore quietly and sank down in one of the seats. That...would explain some things. Like why he and his brothers were acting strangely around the human.

A life giver among them- god, never in a million years did he think he would live to see the day.


	12. Chapter 12

Mikey had just finished chapter five of his book when he decided to stop for a moment and make sure that the human on his bed was sleeping comfortably. Gently closing the book after marking the page, Mikey craned his neck so that he could look at Alice's face. She lay on her back, her long dark hair sliding along the curve of her cheek, causing her to jerk in her sleep and scrunch up her nose a bit.

_Just like a rabbit. How cute. _Mikey thought as it occurred to him that he could call her Usagi just for fun. It could be like a secret code that he used around Alice that only they would understand (since he was likely to tell her what Usagi meant when she got curious enough to ask) Still...

Seeing her scrunch up her nose like that was too cute for words.

Settling back in his seat he re opened his book and was about to resume reading when he wondered if his brothers had ever seen her scrunch up her nose like that and instantly became a little bit jealous.

Mikey wasn't usually the jealous type.

Having lived with his family for ninteen years with nothing to fight over or be jealous of- made his first feelings of jealousy a curiosity to him. Examining the feelings closer, he realized that he disliked the feelings altogether and tried to push them away. But they kept nagging at the back of his mind. Sort of like the 'what if's' he'd tortured himself over the last time Leo had gotten captured by their enemy while saving his shell.

Technically speaking he knew that no one had blamed him. But he couldn't stop blaming himself and that had been almost as bad as someone pointing a finger at him and saying, _'It's your fault.' _

Luckily for him though, his family wasn't the type to point fingers- He heard a loud crash a series of shouts coming from the kitchen and sighed when he heard Raph practically bellow, "It's your fault, Leo!" And quickly glanced back at Alice while ammending his thought, _Well not often anyways. _

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

They had been discussing the full ramifications of keeping Alice with them while Leo had fixed several things ranging from fruit to meat causing his brothers to wonder what he was doing. And when they finally got up the nerve to ask, his reply was- "A life giver needs certain nutrients from each of these to survive and give birth."

"You're acting like we'll be keeping her as a mate." It wasn't an accusation, merely a thought. Why else would Leonardo risk setting the kitchen on fire if not for a mate?

"Even if she decides to leave..." Leo started as he set the latest food aside and turned off the eye to the stove. "She knows about us. And we'll know where she is. Her schedule and such- So it isn't like we can't drop in and see her."

"Is that why she freaked out earlier? Because we would know her schedule and drop in?" The question was asked by Raph, who was glaring at his older brother. Leo sighed and let his head drop back on his shoulders as his two brothers stared a hole in him.

"No. She suggested that she go to the top with me to get groceries and I shot her down." Both Raph and Don looked confused for a moment, not understanding what Leo meant when he finally said. "She asked if she was a prisoner... I didn't know how to answer her. We all know of the dangers of going topside, but she _doesn't_ and likely _wouldn't_ understand."

Everything was silent for a moment before Raph stood up and slammed his hands down on the table so hard that it almost split it in half as he growled out, "You bastard! Do you have any idea of the damage you did? She was hysterical Leo!"

"So I've heard."

"Apparently you didn't hear it enough! That little episode earlier was all your fault! All you had to do was explain- And instead you ran off like a coward!"

"Hey, watch who the hell you call a coward Raph! I didn't exactly _like_ leaving her like that. Not when I knew it could cause her to get sick! Besides, I'd like to see you explain to the emotionally and physically fragile human that we have people out to kill us- _just for fun_- and see if she reacts any better!" Leo growled back at his younger brother.

Raph opened his mouth to say something more, but abruptly closed it again and looked at Don for help. Don sighed and rolled his shoulders as he said, "You both have valid points. Now stop fighting... Or do I have to get sensei in here."

Both of his older brothers made frustrated sounds, then gave him a unison of, "No." and "Hell no." from the two as Splinter entered the room in search of food and his favorie morning tea.

The brothers quickly fell silent and all grabbed a box or two on the table as their father walked further into the room and looked at them as they tried to give him their most innocent look. Not wanting him to know that they knew what the human was already. Splinter gave each of them a calculating look as he walked over to the stove and picked up a small metal tea kettle and filled it with water before saying, "Good morning my sons. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah."

"Uh-huh."

"Slept like the dead." Came the chorus of carefully thought out replies as each of his sons hid their hands behind their backs.

"How did you sleep father?" Leo asked politely as Splinter put the kettle on the stove and turned on the eye before turning to regard his three eldest sons through narrowed eyes. His sons were up to something. He could tell by the all too innocent expressions on their faces and by the fact that they had their hands behind their back, trying to hide something from him.

"I slept well considering the noise." Splinter said before asking, "You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?" All three of his sons vehemently denied any knowledge of Alice's freak out earlier knowing that Splinter would punish them for scaring her so badly.


	13. Chapter 13

Leo, Don and Raph had to wait an hour and a half for Splinter to eat and drink his morning tea before he disappeared into the dojo to get ready for their morning practice. Leaving his son's a little bit of time to plan out their next step with Alice _carefully_.

"Okay, so Alice is a life giver... How exactly do we proceed from here?" Leo asked as he looked to Don who had a thoughtful look on his face as he replied,

"Very carefully."

"Yes but- How?" Raph asked in a tone that would have been considered out of character if not for the extraordinary circumstances. Don gave both of his brothers a small half smile and metally ran through several different scenarios. Number one was the most favorable for them, and for Alice as well because she would be taken care of for the rest of her life.

They would see to it personally.

"I think for now we should forget that Alice is a life giver and simply proceed as we originally planned. And ask her to stay with us. Sure the sewers aren't all that great from a human's point of veiw, but we can make the lair a home for her. Anything she needs can be bought over the internet. If she wants to work- then we can arrange things so that one of us walks her to her work place and picks her up... She would never be lonely."

"But would she accept things like that? Wouldn't she want privacy and stuff?" Raph asked curiously. Don gave him an _oh-dear-simple-Raphie_ look, irking the red masked turtle a bit before his brainy brother said.

"She would have her privacy when she needed it Raph. We simply can't overstep certain boundries without her permission." The words, _Overstepping those_ _boundries without permission would only earn her contempt_, hung unsaid in the air between them.

"But what about her medical condition," Leo asked at last, "Wouldn't it cause problems that we may not be able to handle?" Don shook his head no.

"I spent all night reading up on it and even found some medicines that she can take without hurting her or her ability to give birth to a healthy child. As for everything else, it's all managable with the right combonation of meds. Speaking of, I gave her some pills this morning but I'm not sure if she's had time to think of taking one due to everything that's happened."

Both Leo and Raph blanched a bit and exchanged a look before Raph said, "Does it matter when she takes it?"

"Not really. As long as she takes it."

"Then when she's eating breakfast later I'll see to it that she takes one." Leo said.

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Mikey was on his way back to his room to check on Alice one last time when he paused and looked towards the kitchen.

He had decided to take a bathroom break from reading for a bit and then to grab something for breakfast since he hadn't eaten yet- When he noticed his three older brothers were deviating from their normal morning routine's, and narrowed his eyes a bit when he made out the fact that his brothers were talking about something that they deemed important.

His mind automatically shifting, he caught little snippets of conversation like 'life giver' and 'Alice' by reading his brother's lips from the second floor landing outside of his bedroom.

So Alice was a life giver.

Well that certainly was interesting given that they had never had a life giver near them before. It would certainly explain why Alice already seemed so special to them. Their instincts must have subconsciously picked up on the fact that she was a life giver before they had even brought her home to the lair.

Mikey shook his head after several moments of reading his brother's lips. Finding it amusing just how much the situation had changed.

God they were dense.


	14. Chapter 14

Alice woke up in a strange, dimly lit room- on her side on an unfamiliar bed. Her body covered by a downy soft blanket. Her head throbbing as she tried to recall what had happened just before she had fainted. It took a moment or so but finally she remembered her talk with Leo then being held back from going after him by the larger turtle, Raphael.

And while Leo's lack of an answer generally wouldn't have been enough to send her into hysterics, it had been Raphael's presence- that overwhelming larger than life and aggressive personality had frightened her again. Especially when he had laid his hands on her and refused to let go. Even though he hadn't hurt her...

Anyone would have freaked out at having those large hands trying to hold them immobile.

But it had been Donatello and the orange masked turtle that had been the final straw for her overwhelmed senses. It was simply too much testosterone. So she had done the only thing her body and mind would allow for the moment and fainted.

It was pitiful, true. But at least she was now free.

Sitting up slowly, she pushed at the blanket and then slipped off of the bed and slowly stood. Half expecting to be ambushed by the turtles or something as she cautiously made her way to the door and peeked out. The orange masked turtle was standing a few feet away from the door, his attention entirely focused on something else.

But even so, she highly doubted that she could slip past him. Still... That didn't mean that she wasn't going to try.

Pushing the door open slightly, she expected it to squeak on it's hinges but surprisingly enough she managed to open the door without a sound. _This is a really well maintained door._ She thought as she slipped out of the bedroom and tip toed past the orange masked turtle while trailing a hand along the wall, quietly so as not to draw notice.

She continued to tip toe for several feet, something that wasn't easy on her considering that she wasn't the most graceful person in the world- searching for an opening or door or something. She must have gotten a good ten feet or more when she felt a draft of air through the heavy stone wall and stopped. Turning her head slightly she saw the other turtles through an window like opening in the kitchen.

Was this how they got in and out of their home? She wondered as she started to scratch at it a bit in an effort to take one of the bricks out of the wall but hurt her fingertips. Yet she continued to scratch at it, even after her nails broke and her fingers started to bleed.

She continued this for several minutes- pushing the orange masked turtle from her mind entirely when an arm suddenly appeared around her waist, drawing her back against a well defined body, causing a strangled shriek to escape her throat.

"Shhhh..." A soft voice said next to her ear a moment before one of her wrists was seized in a slightly smaller hand than the other turtles and held up to be examined. "Wow, you really did a number on your hands. It must hurt like a sonofabitch-" The voice said almost absently before saying almost to itself in the same absent manner, "Don's going to be pissed he has to patch this up." As her wrist was released abruptly.

Tipping her head back Alice found herself staring into the clearest set of blue eyes she had ever seen before before the turtle glanced at the bloodied brick in the wall then back to her.

She could see in his eyes that he knew what she had been doing. Yet she was startled when he suddenly picked her up as if she weighed no more than a child, her body in a sitting position on his forearm forcing her to grab his shoulders just to keep from falling backwards.

He said nothing as he moved another twenty feet or so to a particular place that had a brick wall under an arch and flipped open a metal box and then half turned his body so that she could see what he was doing as he placed a finger over a number and said aloud for her to hear, "2-6-7-5-3-9-9-4. This is the code for opening the lair's door if you ever need to get out for a bit, but don't go alone until you learn the way. It's much too dangerous for a human like you and you might get lost in the sewers. Got it?"

Alice wasn't exactly sure what to say to that so she simply nodded her head, her mind already trying to commit the code he'd shown her to memory. But she had a faulty memory and couldn't recall more than three or four numbers. And even then they weren't in order.

The turtle started to flip the metal box closed when he happened to notice out of the corner of his eye that the human was chewing her upper lip, a small frown crossing her face.

He sighed softly and smiled a little bit knowing where she was coming from. He'd been unable to memorize many things in his younger years, but was much more patient at it now.

"Tell you what, Usagi, I'll write it down for you so you can take your time remembering it. Just don't forget my warning about little humans and getting lost..." Again she nodded her head at his words and he gave her a dazzling smile. "Good. Now let's go see what's for breakfast. I dunno about you, but I'm starving. Besides Don needs to look at your hand before the wounds get infected." He said as he nuzzled the underside of her jaw, causing her to dig what was left of her fingernails into his skin and flush as he then turned and headed for the stairs.


	15. Chapter 15

_Nuzzled._

She'd been nuzzled by the orange banded turtle.

_Why? _She wondered, her mind only partially working. She was just so- so _shocked_ by the fact that she had been nuzzled that she couldn't even voice a protest. All she'd been able to do was dig her bloody, sore and throbbing fingertips into the turtle's shoulders as he carried her down the stairs and across the livingroom to the kitchen.

"Hey bros." Mikey said cheerfully as he entered the kitchen with Alice still in his arms.

And all of a sudden a hush fell over the room as three pairs of eyes looked right at her. Suddenly feeling subconscious she buried her face against Mikey's neck in an effort to hide, startling him. "Uh...Alice, babe, you need to let go." Mikey said weakly as he tried to pry her hands from his body as his brothers quickly put the little boxes Leo had bought away then stood up.

Mikey managed to get Alice's hands free as Leo walked over and plucked her from his younger brother's grasp and set her down in a chair at the table as Don left the room to get her meds, leaving Leo, Raph and Mikey to go about fixing breakfast and feeding themselves after Leo set the bowl he had fixed for Alice in front of her.

Mikey took one look at the bowl and started to say something when Alice made a pained hissing sound drawing their attention to her. "Alice?"

"Sorry, my bad-" Mikey said as he moved over to the table and leaned over her shoulder and took hold of one of her hands so that he could examin it. Now that the bleeding had stopped he could see that the wounds she had given herself while trying to tunnel out of the lair were moderately bad. "Don needs to do something about this before you bother trying to eat otherwise it's going to hurt like hell." Mikey said with a sigh as both Leo and Raph craned their necks to look over his shoulders and see what he was talking about, and both males hissed in silent fury upon seeing her hands.

"What the-" Raph started to say when he was cut off by Leo whom rudely shouldered his little brother aside and grasped Alice's wrist in his large three fingered hand as he finished Raph's train of thought.

"Fuck happened to her hands?" Alice bit her bottom lip and tipped her head back to stare at the turtle-men. Raph and Leo didn't look none too happy about the fact that she was hurt. In fact they looked like they were currently capable of murder. Something that sent chills down her spine as Donatello re-entered the kitchen with her meds in hand and paused as his oldest brother growled at him in Italian to go get his medical kit, Alice was wounded.

While Raphael cornered Mikey and questioned him about the nature of the wounds.

Mikey gave Raph a bored look and then gave Leo a pointed look and said very plainly in english, "Her wounds are your fault ya know-" To which Leo's eyes widened and he flinched as if he had just been hit. "All you had to do was explain to her that she can't go out into the tunnels. That she could get lost or hurt or something... But no as usual, you have to impose your will on everyone. Including someone who is a guest. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Again Leo flinched and looked like he'd been struck.

He was ashamed. Not so much for imposing his will on Alice, but for not telling her why she couldn't leave the lair. Or more like why he and his brother's were suddenly not willing to _let_ her leave the lair.

Don came back into the room as Leo reluctantly let go of her and moved away and watched as Don sat down and took one of her wounded hands in his and quickly examined it before opening his medical kit and pulling out some supplies to clean the wounds on her fingers and so on. It took him only a minute or so to clean the blood from both of her hands- which stung like hell to her- before telling Raph to go find a fingernail file.

Since her nails were just broken in places it meant that he could fix them to sort of what they had been like before. Once Raph returned with the nail file, Don went to work- taking maticulous care not to file her nails too short and hurt her more before placing bandaids on each of her fingers and smiled at her before putting his things away.

Alice was about to ask about why Mikey had nuzzled her when she felt a large hand on top of her head and looked up to see Leo. His expression had changed from earlier's _I'm-an-ax-murderer-and-I'm-coming-after-you_ look to one of guilt. "I'm so sorry Alice. I didn't mean to frighten you to this extent before. Please forgive me." He said in a soft almost coaxing tone as Don popped the lid off of her medicine bottle and shook out a pill then held it out to her as a glass of grape juice suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Enough beating yourself up Leo-" Don said in a commanding tone as he placed the pill in her hand and watched her for a moment. This was the ultimate test in trust for them, to have a stranger take something from their hand without knowing if it was dangerous or not. If Alice took the pill then it meant that A) She was desperate for the meds. Or B) She really trusted them to some degree.

Frankly he hoped it was the second choice since it meant it would give them all something to build a relationship on later.

Alice looked at the tablet for a moment then at the four of them. For some reason they were crowded around the table, watching her in a peculiar fashion. She chalked it up to her being a stranger in their home, never realizing how predatory those stares were as she put the tablet in her mouth and swallowed before taking a drink.

The four all let out a collective sigh and moved to various positions around the kitchen. Leaving her to eat her bowl of peaches and drink her juice in silence.


	16. Chapter 16

Alice ate about as much as she could of the bowl of peaches before slowly pushing it away and nearly jumped out of her skin when one of the four turtles leaned over her shoulder and took said bowl. The turtle gave her a peculiar look reminding her of a kicked puppy as he said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He said as he moved away- taking what was left of the fruit with him as he retreated.

"Ah no- don't worry about that- I'm not- I-I'm sorry." She stammered, unsure of what else to say or do as she folded her hands in her lap and stared at them. Things had calmed down since earlier and though she was still a tad bit upset at Leo, though his earlier explintation about why she shouldn't leave their home _had_ made sense to her. Kind of.

She understood well enough that he had been trying to protect her. She even understood his brothers point of veiws- But that in no way made her any less wary of their intentions towards her. After all, they were highly intellegent. And possibly very dangerous too.

She didn't know for sure, but she got the feeling that they were as dangerous as the weapons they carried on them- and this frightened her though she tried to hide it from them. But every now and then, from the looks they gave her- she'd swear that they knew what was running through her mind.

The sudden clearing of a throat startled her somewhat as Don asked, "Did you have enough to eat?"

Suddenly sitting very straight in her seat, her attention rivetted on him, she slowly nodded her head as his eyes flickered around the small room to his brothers. Each lounging about in various places before he gave her a sunny smile that she got the feeling was somewhat at odds with his nature as he stood up and held a hand out to her.

"Good. Our father wants to meet you."

Alice started to slip her smaller hand into his when her mind finally seemed to register what he had just said and her heart suddenly slammed against her ribs in alarm. _Oh dear._

Their father wanted to meet her. Their father...

Her mind blanked for a moment and she suddenly felt an arm wrap around her slender waist and looked up at the red masked turtle who had grabbed her the moment her legs gave out on her and was staring down at her with a look that was half concern half something else.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked in a low rumbling tone that gave her the shivers.

She gave him and the others an awkward little smile and murmured that she was fine now. She had no idea she had been panicking so much over the prospect of meeting their father, normally she was more aware of such things. Don and the others stared at her for a moment longer before they all exchanged a look as Raph asked her again if she was alright.

He seemed rather hesitant to let her go to her. And Alice got this peculiar fluttering sensation in her stomach as she started to get a little wet and flushed with embarrassment before nodding her head and felt the arm holding her up slowly slide away. Leaving a small tingling sensation in their wake.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Don asked again, wanting to make sure that she hadn't just had a seizure on them. His sharp eyes studying her as she moved away from Raph with a small muttered word of thanks.

Obviously grateful that he had kept her from falling on her face in front of them.

"Yeah, sorry-" She said as she walked over to him. "I don't know what happened, my knees just suddenly went weak." She said half jokingly, hoping that their sense of smell wasn't that sharp. Oh god she'd die of mortification if it was. Don's expression softened a bit as he offered his arm and waited until she took it before saying.

"That's alright. We've all had moments like that." The two chuckled as they made their way out of the kitchen and headed towards the dojo before Raph turned and looked at Leo and asked,

"Did you smell the scent coming off of her when I had her?" Leo nodded his head sagely, his usually dark eyes lightened to a slate grey as he looked at Mikey who was gripping the counter behind his back with both hands to the point where he had ripped off a piece of the tile and wood.

"Jesus, if I hadn't been holding onto the counter-" Mikey started to say when he felt Leo's hand on his nape and glanced at him. Understanding all too well what Mikey was about to say.

"We know." Leo said gently before stating, "Alice was giving off a mating scent. We all smelled it-"

"Do you think Don is okay?" Mikey asked in a low tone.

"I think so-" Raph said as he leaned his shoulder against the doorframe and looked out across the lair just as the dojo door closed. "I think he knows that she didn't intentionally give off that scent."

"Maybe. But his control for the next hour or so will be tedious at best." Leo said. Raph made a noncommental sound and looked back at him, his amber eyes lightened to almost a gold color with flecks of red in them.

"Then we should keep Alice from his grasp until he's more stable."

"Any ideas on how to do that?"

Mikey put a hand up and gained the full attention of both of his older brothers as he said nervously, "Uh... I may have a plan."


	17. Chapter 17

Splinter was in the middle of his morning meditation when he smelt her- the human female that his son's had brought home and intended to keep. The scent of her pheromones was faint, but to his heightened sense of smell the scent was almost overpowering. Floral. Heady... _Wonderful. _

_Oh my poor son's- _He thought as he heard Don's voice speaking a little louder than usual, the tone sounding a mite strained to Splinter's ears. "And this is where our father is. He's been waiting patiently for you inside for a while now. Do you remember what Leo and I told you about his appearance?"

A delicate almost whimsical voice answered his question, "That he's a rat."

"Very good. And now to lay down some ground rules-" Don said almost playfully. Who did his son think he was fooling? Splinter wondered. He knew that his clever son was stalling his visit with the female so that he could remain in her presence just a bit longer. The animal in him probably thought it could scent mark her before his brothers had the chance.

Sighing Splinter slowly unfolded his legs and stood up, careful to use as much stealth as possible so that he could scare his son away before he did something unforgiveable to the young lady. Walking across his room, he silently slipped his fingers through a small crack in his door and slid it open just enough to see his son and the young lady standing there.

"G-Ground rules?" The girl stammered, her complexion a bit pale. Don put his hands on her shoulders and smiled a sly smile that Splinter just _knew_ he'd have to talk to his son about later.

"That's right. Splinter doesn't like loud noises. His hearing is very sensitive so speak as softly as you can. If he offers you tea or advise- take it. Even if it's only out of politeness. This will show him that you respect him and trust him. If he has questions about you- answer them. Remember that this is his home and as such you owe him at least that much curtesy." Splinter listened for a moment as his third son instructed the girl on how to act around him and couldn't help but smile.

Lack of knowledge of human's aside, he'd done a pretty good job of raising his kids. Or so he thought until Don got a strange gleam in his eyes and said, "And if he asks for your measurements-" Alice flushed as Don shrugged and tried to look indifferent as he continued, "Well he's an old man even for a rat and it's best to indulge him."

_Okay-_ Splinter thought in irritation as he curled his fingers until his claws were digging into the doorframe. He was _definately_ going to talk to Donatello about that 'old man' and 'indulge him' jibe.

(************************************************* *************************)

Donatello smiled down at Alice while trying hard to blank out his mind- But her scent..._god_ her scent was sweet like honey. So much so that he found his mouth watering as his mind's eye showed him a scene straight out of a fantasy.

_Alice lay on his bed, her hands bound at the wrist with his mask as his hands gripped her hips to hold them in place while his teeth bit down on her shoulder. Alice cried out as he pressed himself against her more aggressively forcing a soft gasp from her lips as she shuddered under him. Her juices coating the inside of her thighs as well as his aching length. _

_The honey of her scent filling his nostrils, making him dizzy as she moved restlessly against him. "Ah!" Alice cried out again, this time in shock as he slowly ran the tip of his cock along her moist heat as he kissed his way up her throat to her lips before taking possession of them. _

Alice waved a hand in front of his face, noting that his eyes had changed from warm brown to a golden amber with moss green colored flecks in them. "Don? Donatello?" She waved her hand in front of his face again and was startled when a blur of movement snatched her hand.

"Please don't do that." He said in a strained tone as he used his other hand to rub at the space between his eyes as he let her hand go.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. I'm the one who spaced out. Anyways- it's time for you to meet Splinter..." Don said as he opened the door for her and peeked into the room to see his father prepairing tea for himself and his young guest.

Apparently he had gotten tired of listening to their conversation at the door.

Alice stepped into the neat little room and was looking around when the door softly closed behind her and she was suddenly left alone with the rat.


	18. Chapter 18

Hello kittens- sorry it's taken so long to get to this chapter of Blurred Lines, but I've been having health problems that have put me in danger of being hospitalized, and possibly even dying. And on top of that I'm having more seizures.

So- forgive me for the break. It isn't like I meant to wait this long to write this chap.

And with further ado, **_finally_**- here is Blurred Lines.

(************************************************* ************************************************** *)

The moment he closed Alice in with Splinter, Donatello doubled over as if in pain. His arms hugging his chest, his jaw clenched tight as he tried to breathe through the **_terrifyingly burning need_ **coursing through his body, almost driving all sane thought from his mind as his brothers appeared out of nowhere.

Probably after somewhat getting over their own reactions to Alice and his arms were suddenly grasped by Mikey and Raph.

Hauling him upright so that Leo could stare at him for a moment before sighing and saying, "One of the blankets that Alice used last night is in your lab. It has a faint trace of her scent on it. Go take care of yourself before you give us all away."

Don took several deep shuddering breaths and nodded his head as Mikey put his arm around his back and told him to lean on him.

It was on the tip of the younger turtle's tongue to tell Leo and Raph to stay outside Splinter's door and eavesdrop on their conversation when he looked over his shoulder and noted his two older brothers taking up different positions on either side of the door with their earslits resting against the thin wall. This way they could hear every word.

Don made a small annoyed sound as he let Mikey lead him to his lab and made a mental note of asking his brothers how things went between Splinter and Alice later on.

(************************************************* ************************************************** ***)

"Please Miss Alice, won't you have a seat so that we may speak?" Splinter said in a soft tone as the girl turned to look at him with a semi panicked expression on her face. The poor thing looked like she was facing down a lion in it's den. She glanced at the door as if wondering if she could run when Splinter said, "Running away will get you nowhere child. You cannot escape unless I wish it. Besides, I've raised four son's and running triggers the animal in me now. So please, have a seat. I promise I do not bite."

Alice made a funny little hysterical sound in the back of her throat and walked over to the small table where Splinter was sitting and all but flopped down on the pillow on the floor across from him, earning a quick flash of pearly white razor sharp little teeth. Teeth that suddenly terrified her.

He had just been joking when he said he didn't bite, right?

Splinter- ever the one to read a situation sighed softly and rubbed at one white eyebrow as he studied Alice. Damn, he'd taken things too far with his joke. He could practically smell as well as feel Alice's fear beating at him. Almost like a living thing, it dug it's claws deep into the girl and held on for dear life. As most fears often did.

Still it was a little bit disappointing to know that his first encounter with his old friend's daughter would envoke such feelings in her. If anything she should feel protected and comforted by his presence. Especially since he was going out of his way to at least try to appear as harmless as possible to her. "Would you like some tea child. I find it often has a relaxing effect on me if I'm anxious." Splinter said politely.

Alice chewed on her bottom lip for a moment then nodded her head before finally speaking, "Yes please."

Splinter smiled kindly, making a little more of an effort not to show so many teeth this time and slowly got up and walked over to the corner hidden by his bed where he had a small space heater that he used to warm up his tea kettle. Having anticipated Alice's visit earlier when he was out and about in the lair he had gone ahead and filled the small kettle with water and put some tea bags in it.

So now all he had to do was warm it up and get the two glass cups that he used to serve his tea in.

"Um...do you need any help sir?" Alice asked, her voice polite and just a touch wary. He looked at her over his shoulder and found that she was already on her feet just well out of his tail's way. Apparently it had occured to her that he could use it like a weapon if he felt startled.

Smart girl.

"No I do not require help child, please, sit back down and do not mind this old man-" Splinter said kindly as he listened for the sound of water starting to boil so that the tea kettle could be removed.

"O-Okay." Alice said as she returned to the cushion at the table obediently. Splinter thought hard for a moment, it had been years upon years since his last contact with any humans. He had decided that after Emily had died that it was simply for the best to cut himself off from the rest of the world. So trying to figure out what to say or ask of his late friend's daughter was..._difficult_ to say the least.

So he thought with the basics of gathering information. Small non-threatening questions like, "What's your favorite color?" or "What sort of job do you have?"

"If you will humor an old man, Miss Alice, then could you tell me what sort of job you have if you have one?"

"Oh, uh- I'm a librarian."

Splinter's ears twitched for a second. _Oh! _It had been much too long since he had sat down with someone and spoken of such a topic. He was glad that Alice had been taught to love books like her mother had. "And do you enjoy your job?" He asked when he was just _dying_ to ask her if she had ever read any of the books while working. Or if she had come across anything special to her.

Like a book of poetry or bedtime fables that her mother used to read to her as a child.

But he curbed the impulse feeling that the question may be more invasive than he intended.

"Yes," Alice said as he finally removed the kettle from the top of the space heater and grabbed the two tea cups he had sitting on top of a little shelf where there was an old crayon picture of a brown blob with stick arms surrounded by four little green blobs with masks. A stuffed bunny missing an ear, a chipped father of the year mug and several plastic army men with arms and legs missing.

Alice studied the contents of the shelf and after a moment or so giggled. Splinter glanced at her as he placed the two cups and the tea kettle down then glanced towards what had amused her so and smiled fondly. Ah yes, his shelf of 'gifts' from his sons. It looked more like a shelf of misfit toys but there was a story and a fond memory attached to everything there.

Including the picture of colorful little blobs.

"Ah yes, my little shelf of toys... My son's used to think that I had too much time on my hands and saught to help with the problem by giving up some of their toys. Kind of them, yes?"

"I think it was very kind of them." Alice said with another giggle before Splinter asked,

"And what do you think of my sons?"

"Huh?" Alice said somewhat confused by the sudden line of questioning.


	19. Chapter 19

_Alice studied the contents of the shelf and after a moment or so giggled. Splinter glanced at her as he placed the two cups and the tea kettle down then glanced towards what had amused her so and smiled fondly. Ah yes, his shelf of 'gifts' from his sons. It looked more like a shelf of misfit toys but there was a story and a fond memory attached to everything there._

_Including the picture of colorful little blobs._

_"Ah yes, my little shelf of toys... My son's used to think that I had too much time on my hands and saught to help with the problem by giving up some of their toys. Kind of them, yes?"_

_"I think it was very kind of them." Alice said with another giggle before Splinter asked,_

_"And what do you think of my sons?"_

(************************************************* *******************)

"Huh?" Alice said somewhat confused by the sudden line of questioning as she swung her head around to look at him. Splinter stared down at her for a moment before folding his legs under him and sitting down, a little amused by her reaction to his question.

"It is not a difficult question to answer, Alice. But I will ask it again- What do you think of my sons?" Splinter asked again, his tone a little more foreceful. Alice chewed her lower lip for a moment as she thought. What did she think of his totally buff, protective, sweet and frightening, and highly intellegent children?Surely they were four of the greatest sons that any father could ask for.

So why did he want her opinion of them?

She frowned a little bit and would have liked to ask him but a dull thud heard outside the door followed by a hastily hissed, _"Dammit Raph!"_ Seemed to iron out the details of Splinters mind's inner workings.

Ah so he wanted to teach them not to eavesdrop. Okay... That was fine and all, but why ask her to help? She was a stranger to them and hardley knew them enough to form an very accurate opinion.

Though from what she had seen so far, the turtles themselves were fairly gentle with those weaker than themselves. They made a very concious effort to see to the weaker person's health. These were the makings of greatness. Still- she was uncertain of how to answer Splinter's question.

Lacing her fingers together, she cracked her knuckles and the lay her hands on the table- lightly drumming her fingertips against the wood as she said, "Well, I- Your son's are...very kind and attentive to my needs- scaring me within an inch of my life aside."

"But?" Splinter prompted.

Alice looked down at her hands, her expression shuttered as she said, "Sir if I were to speak openly and honestly- As kind as they have been during my time here, I sense that something is going on behind my back. Something that they don't want me to know about. And to be honest, not knowing what's up scares me and makes me feel as if I'm not safe here." Splinter considered her for a moment then looked up at the ceiling of his room before saying,

"Alice...it is true that my son's scheme. But I can say without a doubt that you are wrong about not being safe here. Above ground you have gangs, muggers, people who walk into schools and shoot children. Even your home and work place are not safe. Whereas my family has faught crime syndicates, ancient japanese assassins, mobsters and more-" He spread his arms out and indicated the walls around them.

"You're in the safest place in the whole blasted city of New York! And as for my son's, they are clumsy, but they would never do anything to physically harm you. But if you don't beleave me, perhaps you should try getting to know each one of them a little more before you leave. I'm sure that by the time you are done you will agree that my son's are all amazing individuals."

Alice said nothing as she picked up the tea cup that he had fixed for her, considerably cooler now after several moments of speaking, and took a sip and then drew back a little bit and licked her lips as she realized it was an herbal tea mix. Peachs, rose hip, and green tea with a touch of honey to sweeten it.

It was actually very nice.

Nothing that one could buy in a store- no, this tea was home made. Perhaps by Splinter himself.

"This is good." She said earning a smile from Splinter as his tail did this odd twitch behind him. Almost as if he were pleased by her compliment yet trying to restrain himself from showing too much excitment. Perhaps thinking that if he were to show too much excitment that she wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Yes, it is. I'm rather proud of that fact since I gather ingredients on outings that I take in secret."

"Well it is said that all parents need time away from their kids...otherwise they go crazy and throttle them." Alice said with a wry grin that reminded Splinter all to much of her late mother Emily. Still he laughed at her half hearted attempt at a joke and decided to keep it going by saying,

"And we can't have that, can we?"

"Nope."

Outside of Splinters room, Leo and Raph exchanged looks then carefully got up and headed to Don's lab. They needed to have a meeting before they extended their invitation to Alice.


	20. Chapter 20

"So Splinter said that Alice should get to know us..." Don said thoughtfully as he used a towel hanging on a hook next to the small sink in his lab, to wipe his hands while staring down his three brother's who had come straight to him to report about the talk between Alice and Splinter. Or rather Leo and Raph were reporting. Mikey was just...hanging around listening like he always did.

In the shadows, on the large pipes hanging over their heads. Lurking like some giant shelled phantom or something. Frankly Don thought the kid took his Batman impersinations far to seriously sometimes.

"Sounds like a good idea unless you three have things to hide." Don said as he set the toweel down and then glanced up at where he knew Mikey was, then back at Leo and Raph.

"No!" Leo said in a rush before Raph cut him off by saying.

"We haven't got anything to hide Don- It's just...maybe we didn't think this plan through enough. I mean, what if she gets to know us after moving in and doesn't like us? Doesn't find any of us attractive as a mate."

"You have a valid point. But from what father told us of females- they need to be taken care of. Protected. Alice with her medical condition may need those things more than most. So I'm sure that if we sit her down and lay all our cards on the table...ya know, appeal to her logical side. Anyways we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Don said as he tossed the hand towel over one of his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest.

Leo and Raph nodded in agreement as Mikey dropped down from the pipes and landed lightly on the balls of his feet next to Don who looked over at him as if expecting him to get on the bandwagon. Ignoring Don's pointed look because Mikey didn't exactly want a mate- even one as cute as Alice- he'd much rather be an uncle.

He figured that until he matured a bit more and finally _wanted_ a mate that the experience would be good for him. Besides, he'd be an awesome uncle. He'd sit with any kids his brothers had with Alice (if she allowed it) and play games with them. He'd teach them to read, to hide in all the best places in the lair while playing hide and seek.

They were about to start planning how to help Alice get to know them better when the dojo door opened and she walked out of their father's room giggling when she noticed them standing together in a group and suddenly stopped and gave them an awkward little wave. They each nodded and waved back and dropped their hands when she all but turned and sped from the livingroom and into the kitchen.

No doubt to hide from them. At least until she managed to work up the curage to approach them.

Don sighed and closed his eyes, expecting Alice to take an hour or more when she poked her head into his lab. Startling him and his brothers when she said tentatively, "Um...hi-" He opened his eyes and looked in her direction, his gaze, like his brother's silently appraising her. "Am I interrupting?"

"No Alice. We were just...uh, having a meeting about something. What's on your mind?" Leo asked curiously, his slate grey eyes alight with something unnamed.

"Well, Splinter-san has invited me to stay for a few more days...just to make sure that I don't fall unconcious again. He told me to run my staying here by you guys and see if you have a problem with it. He also said that something will have to be arranged so that I can go to work."

"Where do you work?"

"I work in a library just a mile or so from where you found me."

"_Ohhh _a library. You don't look the type to enjoy working in such a place." Don said teasingly as he reached out and ran one of his fingers along the curve of her cheek and made a low purring sound, startling her. She blinked up at him as her face flushed and her expression went carefully blank as she lifted a hand to rub at the spot. Not in an 'ew gross' sort of way, but in an awkward 'why did you do that' sort of way.

"Ummm, well that's all I wanted to say. So I'll leave you guys to your meeting." Alice said as she gave them a small forced smile and quickly disappeared from sight. The second she was out of earshot, Leo quickly punched him in the upper arm causing Don to yelp and turn to look at him with a sinister expression on his face. His dark brown eyes flashing with temper.

_"What." _He gritted out from between clenched teeth.

"You shouldn't have done that-" Leo said before going on to say, "You alarmed her."


	21. Chapter 21

For the better part of half of the day, Alice somehow managed to avoid each of them.

It was the damndest thing really; Leo thought as he watched her out maneuver Raphael for like the zillionth time, and shook his head. Alice as it happened was really good at avoiding things. It was almost as if she were a ninja, but he would have known if she was.

They had come across several different ninja sects and knew that each one had it's own code of honor as well as training methods and signiture moves. And after watching Alice throw herself into a shadowy corner just to avoid bumping into Raph- he was pretty sure that she wasn't a ninja.

She was just really weirded out by what Don had done earlier and trying to avoid a repeat of the incident.

So natrually when it was lunch time, Leo devised a plan to more or less trap Alice and waited until she had made her way into the kitchen to fix something to eat before gathering his brothers and waving at them to follow him. They each fell into step either behind or beside him with their game faces on.

Enough was enough.

She had given it a good go, but she wouldn't learn anything about them if she kept running. So they would have to force her to stop. Moving with all the stealth Splinter had taught them from childhood, they made their way to the kitchen just as she was putting up the peanut butter and jelly that Leo had bought earlier that morning.

Then slipped the loaf of bread back into it's hiding place and walked over to the kitchen sink and washed the spoon she had been using then set it aside to dry and turned- and stiffled a startled shriek when she saw all four of them standing in the doorway looking curious.

"Um..." Alice started to say something when Leo asked,

"Alice, why are you avoiding us?"

She got a peculiar look on her face and scratched her left cheek as she looked away from them and seemed to mull over the question before saying carefully. "I'm not exactly trying to avoid you, per-say. I just-"

"Want to avoid another uncomfortable situation." Don finished for her. Her head swung around and her eyes locked with his for a moment as she flushed a pretty shade of pink and studied her feet as if she found them facinating. Everyone was quiet for a moment as cold dread started to settle in Leo's gut.

_Oh_, this couldn't be good; Leo thought to himself as Alice hugged herself for a moment before speaking.

"I'm not sure what you're expecting from me, but I don't do romantic entanglements. I used to...when I was younger and more...hopeful and optimistic. But not after- I just _can't_."

"Will you tell us why?" Raph asked, his tone was gentle and coaxing as he took a small step forward. Trying to pry information out of her voluntarily while moving into reaching distance so that he could wrap his arms around her and hold her in place if he had too. Alice paled and got a strange look on her face. Like Splinter sometimes did when he had nightmares about their late grandfather Yoshi, and Leo and Don exchanged a look of concern as Mikey said sagely,

"The humans did something to you, didn't they?"

Alice gave them all a jaded smile, the light suddenly going from her eyes. Leaving them flat and almost dead looking. "You four should know more than anyone how cruel people can be."

"Alice-" Leo started to say something when she lifted a hand and cut him off, before she spoke again.

"I liked a guy once when I was thirteen. He was older, sixteen, I think. And he seemed like a nice enough guy and he acted like he liked me. Like I was the most important girl in the world to him. It took a few weeks but he finally weasled his way into my foster home. Made my foster family like him, then asked me out. I remember buying a new outfit because I wanted to look nice- Like there was something wrong with me to begin with. I guess I was trying to overcompensate because of my seizures. I didn't want anyone to know about them if possible..."

"They always made me an outsider. Made me feel like I should have the word **DEFECTIVE** tattooed across my forehead or something, ya know? And I wanted _so_ much just to feel normal for once. So I did the whole girly thing and painted my nails, put on some makeup, perfume, my new outfit and then I left to meet my date. Unfortunately for me he chose a sleezy hotel for our date and was high as a kite by the time I got there. He also failed to mention that he had invited several of his friends to join us."

"Apparently they made a habit of picking up younger girls and drugging them or coaxing them into drinking until they passed out and then took turns with them-"

The turtles all got horrified/sick looks on their faces as Don stepped forward and choked out, "Oh god Alice- Did they- Were you-" She looked at him and lifted her hand and pushed it through her dark hair.

"They jumped me at the door, and got in a few good shots before I even felt the needle pierce my skin. But the drug didn't sit well with my meds so they had no choice but to either take me to the hospital or let me die. And since they weren't so keen on going to jail for drug possession or rape of a minor- they ran. I was discovered by a maid maybe ten minutes later, thank god. Aside from that I have no clue. I don't know if they did anything or not. But I learned my lesson. Which is why I don't do romantic entanglements."

Everyone was quiet for a second before Alice asked, "This was why your dad wants me to get to know you four better isn't it? He's hoping that something of a romantic nature will occur."

"Yes-" Leo said honestly knowing that any chance they may have had before of mating with her may die, but felt that he should be honest. She deserved at least that much from them. "Forgive us for hoping the same thing."

Alice waved a hand, as if she were waving his apology off. "It's fine...I guess. I mean I can sort of understand his point of view..."

"It's not just his Alice, it is ours too-" Don said gently. "We four are the first and last of our kind. And as you've probably noticed so far, we're all male. You are female. A lifegiver. A chance to have offspring and families of our own. A chance to save our speicies..." Don's voice faultered and Raph took over.

"You went through a terrible thing as a kid- We can't erase that experience from you, but we can damn well make sure that no one else lays a hand on you while your with us. Think of this as your safe place. In fact while your here with us you'll have a safety word, something to let us know when things are going too fast or you're uncomfortable-" He quiet for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face before he grinned and snapped his fingers. "How about **Red**?"

"R-Red?" Alice stammered, her mind unable to comprehend what Raph had just said.

"Yeah, Red. As in the color meaning _caution_ or _stop_."

There was a humming sound and Alice glanced at Don and Leo before one said, "That should work-"

"But just in case it doesn't," Leo said as he dug a small butterfly knife out of the pouch sewn onto his belt and demonstrated how to open it by flicking his wrist then held it out to her and then said, "If you ever use the safety word on one of us and that person doesn't back off- Stab him here-" He tapped his bicep in the space between his shoulder and elbow.

"And if that doesn't work to get him to back off, _scream_ your head off for master Splinter... He'll make whoever is bugging you, leave you alone. He'll also bring the rest of us to help." Leo said as he took her wrist in his large hand and placed the small knife in it.

Alice looked at the silvery blade then back at him and his brothers and turned a peculiar shade of green before nodding in understanding even though the thought of maybe having to hurt one of them didn't sit well with her.


	22. Chapter 22

The lair after that fell strangely quiet as everyone gathered in the kitchen to eat lunch. Splinter- himself decided to come out of his private rooms so that he could join his sons and Alice just to observe their interactions together out of curiosity.

He sat in his usual corner eating rice and smoked fish that Mikey had learned to make for him, his dark eyes flickering between Alice and his four sons who were strangely huddled together. Looking like they were nothing more than an uncomfortable tangle of arms and legs handling forks, spoons, and one pair of chop sticks.

_What is this? A game of charades? _Splinter wondered as he took another bite of his food and looked back at Alice as if hoping she would give him the answers. The girl was sitting with her shoulders hunched, her head low... As if she didn't want to be seen or something.

Raphael went to take a bite of his food and accidentally poked Leo in the eye causing both Splinter and Alice to inwardly cringe. _Ow! _That looked more than it's share of painful.

Leo let out a yelp followed by a loud growling sound as he swiped at the eating untinsil and accidentally smacked Mikey on the side of the face. The sharp stinging sound making Alice huddle in on herself more in sympathy as Mikey slowly turned his head to glare at his brother through narrowed icey blue eyes, his gaze promising swift and brutal retaliation.

Splinter sighed. Good grief what were his son's doing? They were acting like fools when they should be conducting themselves with dignity. Letting Alice see the beauty and grace that they had learned from their ninja skills. Showing her that they would be good mates and providers to her and their offspring. This- This...well he just didn't know what this was!

What exactly did his son's hope to achieve by acting as if Alice was a leper? Splinter wondered as Donatello struggled to take a bite of his rice and fish before asking politely, "Ugh, Alice- Are you comfortable enough?"

Alice looked up from her sandwhich and looked at the mass of turtles and blinked before looking to the blank space on her right and left where she assumed the turtles usually sat when they were at the table and gave them a forced smile. "I am. But..."

"But?" One of the turtles prompted before grunting in pain. Damn his brother's sharp elbows-it made it hard to breathe!

"Why are all of you piled over there in such an uncomfortable position?"

"We're trying to respect your personal space."

"By breaking every bone in each of you're bodies?" Alice asked in a wry tone that had Splinter biting the inside of his cheek in an effort to keep from laughing. Leave it to an outsider to point out something like that when ninja's had very flexible and spry bodies.

Breaking their bones would not be an easy task even as contorted as their bodies were at the moment.

"Don't worry about us Alice, we can take care of ourselves-" _Uh-oh. Mental mine field- _Splinter thought before he mentally started to countdown. _5...4...3...2...1, and there goes my son's legs... _Splinter thought as he caught a small glimpse of Alice's expression out of the corner of his eye and made a little panicked squeaking sound as he grasped the underside of his chair and sort of hopped it over to the wall.

Where he hoped he would be far, far out of the way- Completely forgetting his food in the process as Alice put what was left of her food down and used a napkin to wipe her mouth and hands before turning her furious gaze on his well meaning children and growling as she brought her hands down on the table angrily, "Was that your way of saying that I can't take care of myself?"

All four turtles froze and exchanged looks.

As if wondering what the hell had just happened. Mikey glanced at Splinter as if expecting him to clairify things for them but the old rat just slowly shook his head and signed with his hands, _This is defcon zero_. _Make no sudden movements. _Mikey nodded then looked back at Alice who was still waiting for an answer as one of his elder brothers said, "That isn't what we meant Alice."

"It wasn't?" Raph asked stupidly and Splinter sighed and hid his face in his hands as he thought, _And there is mine field number two. Goodbye cruel world. _

"No it wasn't," Leo snapped at his idiot brother. It was like Raph had a death wish and wanted to take them with him or something. "Alice we know that you can take care of yourself. You wouldn't be alive now if you were incapable of doing so. It's just that to us, you're so much more fragile." Leo said in a slow almost unsure tone. As if he wasn't sure what to say to her at first.

Alice listened to him quietly, her fingertips drumming on the table as she observed that both Splinter and Mikey had somehow managed to disappear from the room. _Damn ninja's and their tricks. _She thought as she tappedd her nails against the table two more times before sighing in irritation. Jerk. How could she tell all of them off if he and the rat were gone? Not that it mattered any- She'd nail Mikey later.

Splinter however... Well she didn't think smacking him would be a good idea since he was an elderly person. So she'd stick to his son's for the time being. After all, she wasn't as helpless as they thought. She had her ways of dealing with others. As they would soon find out. "Alright guys, I forgive you-" She said with a fake smile as she reached out and patted each of the turtles on the cheek, gently. "Just don't let it happen again." She said in a mean tone as she slipped by the frozen stiff threesome.

The second Alice was out of hearing range Don and Raph crawled down from their perches on Leo's lap and looked around with stunned expressions on their faces before Raph lifted a hand and asked stupidly, "Uh, what the hell was that?" As he blinked his amber eyes.

"That- I think was a small glimpse of Alice's temper." Leo said with a small smile. Part of him was more than a little freaked out by her sudden show of aggression while another part of him thought it was sexy as hell.

"I've got chills-" Don said in an aghast tone as he patted himself down. As if Alice had walked off with an arm or leg or something."Do you guys have chills?" He asked. Both Raph and Leo nodded.

They had the chills alright. And not because they were cold blooded either.


	23. Chapter 23

Spirit. It wasn't a bad thing if used in the right way.

And as the day dragged on, the turtles were beginning to notice that Alice had spirite in aces and spades. After the little outburst in the kitchen this morning their little spitfire had shredded Raph's favorite punching bag, took apart one of Donatello's projects with an expert's ease, ruined Leo's bedroom (if the feathers of his pillows and bed spread were any indication at all).

And then had made a trip to Mikey's room and ripped the head off of every one of Mikey's Silver Sentry action figures causing the normally quiet young turtle to growl and lunge at her as she passed him.

However he never laid a hand on her, not with his brothers standing right there to grab him and drag him back.

Still. Alice was showing that despite her words, she already knew several of their weaknesses and could attck them using those weaknessess. Frankly it was a bit disturbing. But they would bear with it as they went about trying to salvage their stuff.

Don was in his lab trying to fix his ruined project and after trying to reattach a cut wire when it occurred to him that it was unsalvageable. Granted it wasn't a new weapon or anything like that, but it frustrated him that Alice _would_ or_ could_ be so careless.

If the blasted thing had been a fusion bomb or something in the makings- he, his master, Alice, and his brother's would all be dead now!

_That stupid girl!_ He thought furiously as he laid his tools aside and made a loud irritated sound. Alices attacks on their things were uncalled for. When they had said earlier that they could take care of themselves, it hadn't been to throw the story of her past misjudgement back in her face or even to make her feel as if they were talking down to her.

They had simply meant that as ninja- They really could take care of themselves. Alice however had percieved their words as an attack on her. The door to the lab opened and closed and Don looked up to see his brothers. All three of them. _Oh, this can't be good. _Don thought as they walked over to him and Leo said, "My room was wrecked." As if Don could fix the room with a wave of a magic wand or something.

The statement was so _un-Leo-like_ that Don had to stiffle the urge to laugh at him. Instead Don sighed and gave his brothers a wry smile. "I know. One of my projects was taken apart."

"My punching bag has been destroyed." Raph said with a look of utter astonishment on his face. He was probably wondering why anyone would be so cruel. Honestly Don thought his expression was a laugh riot. But he kept that information to himself.

"And my Silver Sentry action figures no longer have heads." Mikey said with a frown as he held up what was left of one of his action figures. Sure enough, it was missing a head. _How the hell- _Don wondered as he reached out and slowly took Mikey's action figure from him and examined it then let out a low whistle. _Wow. _This was hard core action figure something Raph would do in a temper.

"Wow. I can't believe that Alice did this..." Don finally said as he handed the headless action figure back to his baby brother whom glowered at him for his comment. "That is some quality head ripping right there."

"Not funny Don." Mikey hissed. He'd spent a small fortune on each action figure, and as someone who regularly got his stuff broken by Raph- he didn't appreciate this at all.

"Sorry Mikey. We'll find a way to fix them okay-" Don said as he reached up and rubbed his little brother's bicep to sooth him. Mikey nodded and fell silent as Leo asked,

"So what do we do about Alice?"

"Do?" Don asked stupidly.

"She attacked us in our own home-" Leo said, his tone deadly serious.

"No she didn't," Don reasoned. "She attacked what we feel affection for. There is a serious difference. Besides, we're the ones who messed up first. So leave her be. Her temper will run it's course and given her personality type she'll apologize."

"But-"

"No 'buts' Leo. Trust me on this. She's still mad about earlier, she felt it was an personal attack on her so she's retaliating." Leo and the others frowned. they hadn't thought of that. They had merely thought she was wrecking their things for the sake of wrecking them. But now that they knew she was still mad, retaliating was a normal course of action. And if they did anything more to provoke her...

Well, it wouldn't end well for them since she might hollow out their shells and turn them into ashtrays.

"Okay Don. How long should we give her until she cools down?" Leo asked as he crossed his arms over his plasteron.

"Give her until dinner time since it's a few hours away. If she doesn't come to us by then..."

"Then we go to her." Leo said in his most authoritive tone. Raph and Mikey nodded and Don sighed. _Oh boy-_


	24. Chapter 24

Alice flopped down on the couch with a long exhailed sigh, feeling exhausted now that she had ripped, shredded, and broken some things belonging to the turtles. She knew it would look childish and ungrateful of her for doing so. But dammit why did they have to make her feel like shit when they had said they could take care of themselves? It was as if they had all but said that she was weak...

And she wasn't weak- At least she didn't think she was.

Yet they had done nothing since bringing her to their home but treat her like spun glass with cracks in it. And now that she really thought about it she couldn't tell if that was just a part of each of their personalities or if it was something else. Logic just didn't seem to work for her when she was around them and she didn't really understand why.

One thing she knew for certain was that she owed them all an apology later for breaking their stuff. Especially Don and Mikey, their stuff had looked expensive. It would probably cost a fortune to replace. _Good thing I have a job. _Maybe she could pay the turtles back for their stuff so that they could get new stuff. Yeah, maybe that'd work.

If they didn't completely hate her by now for being such a bitch, that is.

She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling a headache forming behind her eyes and almost whimpered. Christ why couldn't she get a friggin break? She had just gotten back up on her feet again after a bad seizure.

She didn't need or want another headache to make her day worse.

She must have sat there for longer than she meant too with her eyes closed. Because one minute she was off in her own little world and the next she felt a large, cool, three fingered hand against her forehead as her eyes snapped open and locked with dark brown. "Ah..."

"Quiet," Donatello said in a low tone. His breath fanning her face as he leaned down close so that he could examine the pupils of her eyes. "You've been looking a little green for a while now. Did you have another seizure?" He asked curiously as he started to move away.

Alice blinked at his question when it occurred to her that he must have been watching her for a while after she broke his- his- well, what in god's name had it been anyways? A portible fusion reactor? No wait, that was just silly.

No it must have been something else otherwise she would be glowing in the dark right now.

"I dunno... But my head kind of hurts again."

Don frowned and made a humming sound before saying, "Then maybe you should lay down for a bit," Alice shook her head 'no' and Don made a snorting sound. "It's understandable that you would want to avoid laying down in the open with several upset ninja's around, but I was going to suggest that you use my lab to lay down for a bit. You wouldn't be disturbed in there by anyone but me." Don said, trying to appeal to her sense of logic.

Alice gave him a peculiar look but after a moment seemed to realize that he was right. His lab _was_ dimly lit, warm, cozy and had a solid steel door that could be locked. She could lay down in there without fear of being disturbed.

Or being jumped and having her head ripped off...

"Okay, okay. You win," Alice said with a sigh as she started to get up. "I'll go to the lab." She was unusually quiet as she brushed by him, her head bowed, her eyes on her feet. The spunk he and his brothers had been on the reiciving end of earlier had seemingly burned out and turned to weariness. _Did she always exhaust herself when she was mad- _He wondered as he watched her disappear into his lab before thinking to himself, _Or was her exhaustion linked to her health? Did she maybe have another condition that she wasn't aware of? _

Sighing softly, he started to walk on when he heard Alice's voice say, "Sorry about breaking your thingy Don-" And he smiled to himself. Yup, he had read her personality type well. She was just like him. Breaking things first and apologizing later. Now all he had to do was make sure Leo and the others didn't decide to get even with her by shaving her head or something.

He started by Leo's room when the blue masked turtle stepped out of his bedroom with a waste basket overflowing with feathers and what looked like the blue silk Leo had bought online for himself a while back, hanging over his brother's shoulder. Don paused as Leo closed his bedroom door and took one look at the disgruntled look on Leo's face and wondered if Alice had ruined more than his bed sheets.

Leo looked at him and made a small growling sound and he almost laughed. That must be a 'yes' then. No wonder Leo was keeping his bedroom door closed. "Rough time cleaning up bro?"

"I have no idea how someone so small and seemingly harmless could cause as much damage as a hurricaine," Leo said as he shifted his hold on the waste basket so that he could hold up what used to be his pillows and his bed sheets. "Look at these Don. They're practically threadbare! Who has the patience to do something like this?"

Don did laugh now. The look on Leo's face was just too funny.

Leo gave him a dark look as he finally got a hold of himself and cleared his throat as Leo bared his teeth for a moment and hissed at him like a cat before snapping, "It's not funny! I sewed my blanket with my own two hands and she utterly destroyed it! ... I'm locking my door from now on."

"Right on-" Raph said as he appeared with both of his hands covered in blood and held high in the air as if that would stop the bleeding. Don and Leo looked at him and blanched as Mikey came tearing out of his bedroom crying, a headless action figure clutched tightly in his hands. "I'm locking my door too..."

"Raph- W-What happened to your hands?"

Raph looked up at his hands as if just realizing he was bleeding everywhere and shrugged, "Was trying to fix my punching bag and my my knife slipped." Don nodded his head as if he could see Raph doing something so clumsy then looked at Mikey who was standing there quietly sobbing. Waiting his turn.

"And you?"

"I-I was trying to fix my action figures and accidentally crazy glued my hand to the toy!"


	25. Chapter 25

Don flopped back in his seat and eyed his brothers warily as Raph looked back and forth from Leo's wrap job on his hands while Mikey shook his hands then asked weakly, "So that solution stuff that you put on my hands will burn later, huh?"

"Yup." Don said as he caught Leo glancing across the lab at the bed where Alice was resting with a frown on his face.

"Did she have another seizure?" He asked. Don shrugged and glanced across the lab at Alice and noted that she still looked pale even under the dim lighting. Her face was half buried in the pillow, and the covers were drawn up almost over her head, leaving just a little bit of her face exposed.

"Dunno. But it is possible if one considers her irritability from earlier, plus her tantrum," Don said before adding thoughtfully. "I've read on the net that seizures affect the mind in different ways."

"Is that a good thing or bad?" Leo asked with another frown as he tried to process what Don had just said. Again Don shrugged his shoulders.

"Depends on what part of the brain the seizures affect, I suppose."

"What part of Alice's brain do you think was affected?"

"That's hard to say," Don said as he partially turned his head to glance in Alice's direction. "It could be any part. The creative center, the right, the left, the front or back- What you're asking for are specific details that I don't have. To me, it's like being asked to find a needle in a haystack."

"You could do an exam, couldn't you? Figure out everything that needs figuring..." Mikey said with a small gimance. Okay his hands were starting to burn now. And he was going to give Don a piece of his mind later cause it was starting to hurt like a _motherfucker_!

"I could..." Don said thoughtfully as he put his hands behind his head and laced his fingers together. "But not without her permission. I wouldn't want to overstep certain boundries."

Leo nodded his head understanding what Don meant about boundries.

"Yeah, we don't want her wrecking our things again." Raph said.

"Well. You may just have to make peace with that if she _did_ have a seizure," Don said in a bemused tone as he glanced back at Alice. "I've been thinking. If Alice agree's to be our mate- There is a good chance that any offspring she conceives may be lost or born with the same condition that she has. Or even born with learning disabilities."

"That doesn't sound good." Leo said.

"That's because it isn't. I'm not entirely sure how any of us would feel about our offspring suffering from those things-" Don said as he unlaced his fingers and dropped his arms so that they rested on the arms of his chair.

"And then there is Alice. How would she feel about it all?" Mikey wondered aloud without meaning too.

"Dunno." Don said again, his mind already far away.

"And we won't know until we get the ball rolling." Raph said as he stretched his arms up over his head then started to drop his arms when Don snapped,

"Don't you dare put your hands down yet!" Causing Raph to freeze and stare at his younger brother wide eyed, with his hands still in the air.

"Okay, okay. Geez..." Raph grouched before asking in a sulky tone, "How long am I going to be stuck like this?"

"Until I say so." Don growled as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat.

Deciding that it was time to tactfully change the subject, Mikey asked, "How long do you thing she'll be feeling bad?" Don glanced at his baby brother and seemed to be mulling over his question before saying gently.

"I'm not sure. A few hours at the most."

"Will she be up in time for dinner? Cause I was going to make something to welcome her." Mikey said as he tried to shake his hands free of the toy glued to them. He felt a slight pull on his skin and shook harder, anticipating having his hands back to himself again so that he could thumb through some old cook books he had hidden away in his room, and plan.

He wanted the welcome dinner for Alice to be perfect.

Nice with a slight hint of _romantic_ so that his brothers could 'get the ball rolling' as Raph had so nicely put it. Maybe he could turn it into a candle light dinner with the use of some of Splinter's or Leo's scented candles to possibly help relax Alice a bit so that she wouldn't get offended again and destroy a bunch of their things...

Yeah. Maybe that would work.

But the food would either have to be very upscale and classy, like soup, salad, and pasta with a side of seafood. Or simple soup and salad. Period. But what kind would everyone enjoy? Don and Leo liked tomato soup wich could be made into something new and interesting with fresh veggies, shrimp and rice, or even a nice wine and fresh basil to give it a little zing.

Or should he go with something like what Raph would eat?

Raw fish wrapped in seaweed sweetened by warmed up sugar... To be perfectly frank, Mikey would rather die than eat that particular dish, but from time to time change was good. And if Alice might like it then he'd go get his hand made spear and head toward his favorite fishing spot, which was only about two in a half miles from the lair and was an area of great beauty.

Like the area he and his brothers now called home since the cavein at the subway caused by the mousers when he and his brothers were younger, his fishing spot held secret alien tech within it that turned it into a virtual cavern of crystals and sparkling river water- kept fresh from anything humans dumped into it by a filter that Don had made a while back so that they could all enjoy the spot.

And just two years ago, Leo and Splinter had started moving things around down there and creating flower bed. Lugging soil, small trees and seeds down from the surface to make it a more brilliant and lovely place to spend one's time.

Maybe if things worked out with Alice, he or one of his brothers could take her there sometime.


	26. Chapter 26

_Click, click, click..._

Alice groaned and rolled over on the bed she was laying on so that she could glare at the source of the sound and found Don sitting at the computer desk across the room looking up articles on epilepsy and how it affected children born to parents with the same condition. Blinking, Alice took a moment to rub her eyes then glanced across the room again to find Don had shut down his computer and was leaning back in his chair looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" He asked softly.

A nagging suspicion took place in the back of her mind as she took a moment to reply, "I'm okay..." Then asked in as innocent a tone as possible, "What were you looking at?"

Don raised an eye ridge at her question and looked back and forth between her and his computer. His mind working overtime to come up with a nice little white lie even though he was sure that she must have seen something of what he had been reading. "Research." He finally said after a second or so. His tone a little too smooth for her taste. "I want to know as much as possible about your condition- just in case."

"Ah." She said as she slowly started to push herself up and jumped when she found an olive green hand suddenly in front of her face with a pair of little white tablets held in the palm and a clear glass of water appeared in another green hand.

She looked up at Don with wide eyes and wondered how he had managed to move from point A to point B without his chair or anything else making so much as a squeak. It was as if a shadow on the wall had moved. It was weird. Eerie even.

And it sort of creeped her out.

"Here. Take these just in case your head still hurts." Don said gently as he noted her reaction to the way he had suddenly gotten across the room to her and made a mental note to tell the others to make a little noise when they walked up to her. He also made another mental note not to let her see them jump, leap, run or anything else unless it absolutely couldn't be helped.

Alice sat up and slowly took the pills from Don and was about to ask what they were when he seemed to anticipate her question and said, "It's Tylenol. Extra strength." She gave him what she hoped was a grateful smile and put the tablets in her mouth and then took the glass of water and drank it down as Don moved back a bit and asked,

"Are you up to holding down some food? My younger brother Mikey- He wanted to make something nice since you're here."

"Oh," Alice said as she looked for a place to set the glass only to have him step close again and take it from her hand. She gave him an awkward smile and he smiled back and set the glass aside. "That sounds very nice."

"Good. You're not allergic to seafood are you?"

"Huh? No."

"Good." Don said as he gave her a charming smile then said, "I'm going to go check on dinner, and then I'll be right back." As he turned and quietly walked out of the lab and made his way to the kitchen. He wasn't worried that Alice may try to figure out what he had been looking up on the computer since she didn't know his password.

Smirking a little to himself at the thought of her playing 'ninja' with an actual ninja, he stepped into the kitchen just as Mikey was pulling some home made garlic bread out of the oven and checked out the spread. Baked fish, fresh water clams, pasta, squash soup, a large salad in a big metal bowel with homemade buttermilk ranch dressing and french dressing - There were little candles sitting on the table, each one scented like jasmine, yucca, and lavender...

All known to be very useful aromatheropies to help relax people.

_Geez_, Mikey had gone all out for this. Don noted as he tilted his head back and sniffed the air. And wow, everything smelled so good. Mikey set the garlic sticks on the counter top to cool a bit and glanced over at him, probably wondering why he was in the kitchen so early. Yet suprisingly, Mikey didn't seem to care about his presence.

"Where's Leo and Raph?" The youngest of the turtles asked curiously.

"Probably excercising in the dojo for now." Don replied before Mikey asked,

"How is Alice doing?"

"Better. But I gave her some Tylenol just in case."

Mikey nodded his head in understanding then asked, "Do you think she'll like the dinner I made?"

Don looked around the small room again and smiled as he replied, "Who wouldn't like it. Even I'm impressed," Mikey flushed a little bit as Don walked over to him and gave him a quick one armed hug before saying happily, "I'll go collect the others and we'll be back in here by the time you light the candles." And then leaving the room to go collect his older brothers and Alice.

(************************************************* *************************)

Alice stared at the blue screen of Don's computer with a frown on her face as she tried to think of what his password might be. Damn the man-er, turtle! She knew now that he was up to something.

His brothers possibly were too. But unless she could see what he had been reading when she woke up, she was walking blind through a friggin mine field! And she didn't like it.

Not one little bit.

_Goddammit I will not be taken advantage of! _She thought in anger as she tried another word only to have the same 'locked' word flashed across the screen again. Irritating her further. She was so absorbed with trying to figure out Don's password that she was completely caught unaware by Leonardo's voice, "Alice? what are you doing messing with Don's computer?"

Alice shrieked in surprise and nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around in Don's seat so that she was looking at Leo whom was standing in the doorway of the lab, leaning his shoulder against the door. His dark blue eyes narrowed as he waited for her to reply.

"O-Oh, Leo. I was just...wanting to check my e-mail..." He raised an eye ridge at her, no doubt knowing that she had just lied to him, then pushed away from the door and lazily walked over to her.

"Is that so?" He murmered thoughtfully as he reached out and switched the computer off again then held his hand out to her and said. "Well it'll have to wait. It's time for dinner."


	27. Chapter 27

Leo was silent as he escorted Alice to the kitchen. Occasionally glancing down at her and trying to think of why she would be on Don's computer. Sure she had told him she had wanted to check something, but he had known it was a lie. Which begged the question; Did little Alice seriously think she could outwit a trained ninja?

He'd have to speak to Don about the little incident later on, but right now he wanted to get through dinner. And at the moment he couldn't help but feel nervous. Pausing in the doorway to the kitchen, he released her hand so that she could take a tenative step forward into the room and check it out.

The kitchen had been decorated nicely using some of the treasures that he and his brothers had come across at their favorite cavern, a string of freshwater pearls that Raph had discovered at the blottom of the river a while back, lay draped across the kitchen table next to the dishes.

Over what looked like origami flowers in pinks, reds and whites littered the blue silk table cloth that Mikey had apparently borrowed from Master Splinter.

There was a small center made up of nine or more small scented candles lit in the middle of the table, illuminating the small room while filling it with a very relaxing and soothing scent. All in all the room gave off a feeling of coziness and enchantment that made a smile tug at Leo's mouth. Mikey had certainly outdone himself for this dinner, that much was for sure.

But what did Alice think of it all? He wondered as she looked over everything from the set dishes to the foods before looking back at him, covertly, a small frown crossing her face. "Leonardo-"

"Hm?"

"W-What is all of this?" Alice asked, her voice giving out a little. Leo moved out of the doorway to stand just behind her and placed one hand on the back of a chair and leaned down a little bit so that his breath could be felt against her ear and replied,

"What does it look like?" Causing her to squeak and slap a hand to her ear as she flushed a nice shade of pink. Leo chuckled softly and pulled the chair he was gripping out a bit and then used his other hand to steer her over to sit in it before his brothers walked in.

"Whoa, Mikey. Everything looks great!" Raph said as Don quietly brushed past Leo, an bemused smile on his face as he grabbed a seat and sat down. Raph and Mikey took their seats on Alice's left side while Don and Leo sat on her right and each one took a turn asking her if she would like to have some of certain dishes before picking them up and handing them to her.

Alice stared down at her plate in semi disbelief when she wound up with a little bit of everything on it ranging from pasta, clams, bread sticks to salad and soup in her soup bowl. She must have stared at her plate a little bit too long without realizing it, because one minute she was thinking she was going to wind up as fat as a cow and the next a green hand was waving in front of her face.

"Alice?" She looked up and found all four turtles looking at her with somewhat concerned expressions on their faces.

"Y-Yes?" She stammered as her face heated up. She felt mortified that they were watching her. She never had been good with people watching her eat. She had always felt so subconcious about her table manners. And had sort of developed a complex about them thanks to one of the foster homes she had lived in for a while as a kid.

"Are you okay?" Raph asked as he pulled his hand away from her face. She gave him a small smile that was more than a little forced and picked up her fork and started to go to spear something on it and stopped when she noted that they didn't have anything on their plates yet. _Aren't they eating? _She wondered before wondering, _What does a giant humanoid turtle eat anyways? _

"I'm fine. I was just thinking-" She replied before asking, "Aren't the four of you going to eat?"

"We can't just yet." Leo said in a gentle tone. Alice frowned and Don elbowed his elder brother for not explaining things better and decided to explain to Alice _why_ they couldn't eat at the moment.

"What Leo here means is that- We can't eat anything until you've had you're fill-" Don said a little awkwardly, unsure of how to go about explaining their more primitive instincts to her. Alice frowned again and looked at him oddly as Don scratched the side of his head and made a funny 'nur' sound before trying to explain again, "W-What I mean is- Well, as mutant turtles with some human DNA- Our instincts dictate-" Don felt Leo's hand on his shoulder and turned his head to look at his elder brother as Leo smoothly cut in.

"What Don is trying to explain to you Alice is that as males, our more subdued instincts dictate certain things to us at certain times. This is one of those times. And our instincts are telling us that we can't eat until you- the female- have had you're fill of food in front of you. We will sit here and patiently wait until you are done before we will touch anything to our plates."

Alice was silent as she absorbed the information that Leo had just given her before opening and closing her mouth several times then scowling at them as she tried to put her thoughts in order to counter Leo's words.

As far as she was concerned, having the four of them sit there while she ate was- well, _rude. _Not to mention that she just didn't like the way they were staring at her so expectantly. As if she should just cave to their whims or instincts or whatever. Like a good girl should.

She fought down the urge to give an unladylike snort; _When had she ever been a good girl?_ She wondered to herself as she said, "So basically the situation we have here is like a modern day _me-Tarzan-you-Jane_ situation."

The turtles all looked uneasy as they looked to Don hoping that he could tell them what she meant. "Don?"

"Don't look at me, I have no idea what she's talking about." Don said with a scowl as Mikey reached out and tapped the table next to Alice's plate and said in a tone barely above a whisper,

"Eat. The food is starting to get cold." Alice made a little growling sound, clearly annoyed with them again- though for the life of them, they couldn't figure out the reason why. Yet she still picked up her fork and began to eat without another word. Ignoring their curious/uneasy stares as she did so.


	28. Chapter 28

The first few bites were difficult for her though due to the uncomfortable silence that hung over their heads like a thunder cloud.

Finally after several moments of tracing patterns in the table clothe- she couldn't take it anymore and cleared her throat before saying, "The food's good. You'll have to give me the recipe some time so that I can try and make it myself."

Mikey offered a shy smile in response as she continued to speak. "I've been acting like a bitch to you four for stuff that isn't you're fault... I'm sorry."

The four looked at her almost warily. Not that she could blame them any. She had sort of been a mega bitch- breaking their stuff and all. But hey, at least she hadn't tried to hollow out their shells with a spoon to make ashtrays just yet.

She felt one large hand on her left shoulder and another on her right wrist and knew that Mikey and Don were trying to silently tell her that she was forgiven when Don asked tentatively, "Not that I want to live in the past or anything, but why exactly did you break our stuff earlier?"

"It was the comment you made. _'We can take care of ourselves.'_ I got pissed because it sounded like you were insinuating that I couldn't take care of myself," She used her fork to push around the leaves in her salad so that she wouldn't have to look at them as she said, "I understand that there are differences. Not just in appearance but in health, and thoughts too- but I hate it when people needlessly remind me of what I have to hold myself back from because of my seizures."

She set her fork aside and looked up before continuing to speak, "Up there I can't work. Can't drive. I can't drink. Dating is a dangerous business that could cost me _dearly_ because no one takes me seriously. I'm often treated like a child or a toy and then discarded because I have to many needs. Even having children a little bit down the line could cost me not only my life, but my childs... And those words, _We can take care of ourselves_- I hate them. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you four can take care of yourselves, just don't rub it in. Okay?" Alice said with a weak smile as she looked at each of her dinner companions.

The turtles were quiet for a second as Alice's words sank in.

_Oh. _Oh they were such bastards they deserved to have their stuff broken ten times over. No wonder Alice had thrown her tantrum earlier. Their words, however innocent they had been- had hurt her...deeply.

"Oh Alice-" Leo started to say that they hadn't meant it that way when she lifted her hands and hid her face with one as she sort of waved his words off.

"Please Leo," Alice said in a slightly pained tone. "Lets just leave it alone and have a nice dinner."

Leo sighed and fisted his hands in his lap before answering, "Alright. If that's what you want."

Sh nodded and picked up her fork again and ate some more of her salad and pasta before digging into her portion of fish and soup, and by the time she was done she found Mikey and Don trying to put some more food on her plate. Causing her to bristle a bit even as she felt herself becoming nauseous. "Whoa! I-I can't eat anymore..." She said as she gently placed her hands on both turtle's wrist to stop them.

Both turtles considered her for a moment as Raph asked, "Are you sure that you've had enough Alice? You haven't really ate anything since yesterday when we brought you here. It'd be bad if you were knowingly starving yourself just because you think we're uncomfortable."

"I'm not," Alice assured them with a small smile as Mikey and Don waited for her reply. They didn't know much about the human anatomy aside from how to rip it apart, so they weren't entirely sure if she was being honest with them or not until she said, "I just had what could pass for as a ten course meal- I normally don't eat this much in a single week. So trust me, I'm stuffed."

Raph unfolded his arms from over his chest and leaned forward a little bit in his seat and reached out with one hand and hooked it around her nape and said in a quiet tone. _"Try." _

_"Can't. _I don't have any more stomach room." Alice retorted a slow smile gracing her features as Raph narrowed his eyes at her. Raph let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and dropped his hand away from her nape and sat back in his seat.

"Okay. I get it."


End file.
